Gridlocks on highways, queues for ferries at terminals and jumbled up schedules of buses and trains continued adding to woes of home-bound people who were now in a franatic rush to reach their village home before Eid-ul-Azha.
Reports filed from across the country yesterday also stated that several road accidents, huge number of cattle-laden vehicles and presence of unfit vehicles on the highways had made matters worse for home-goers.
At Chandra and its adjacent areas in Gazipur, people heading towards the country’s northern districts faced a 25-kilometre tailback on Dhaka-Tangail highway. On Dhaka-Mymensingh highway, vehicles had to move slowly due to heavy traffic.
Several hundred vehicles were seen queuing up near Mawa ferry ghat as the vehicles trying to cross the Padma River outnumbered the capacity of ferries on the route. Most launches leaving the capital were overcrowded.
The outbound train schedule from Kamalapur and Airport railway stations almost collapsed yesterday.
However, Road, Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader expressed his satisfaction over traffic situation on the highways when he visited Chandana intersection in Gazipur.
Apologising for the sufferings of home-goers on the highways, the minister said: “It’s not that I am fully satisfied. But some accidents have worsened the traffic flow on Dhaka-Tangail highway.”
“The overall situation is good. As Eid-ul-Azha and Durga Puja are been celebrated almost at the same time, a portion of our law enforcers has been posted at Puja Mandaps, another at cattle markets while the rest deployed on highways. Thus the situation could have been worse, but it did not happen,” he claimed.
Gazipur highway police said some vehicles have had accidents while some went out of order at Mirzapur and Narinda in Tangail and Kodda in Sirajganj, causing gridlocks again on the highways.
“Since the morning, there is a 25-kilometre tailback stretching from Kodda to Konabari, Safipur, Chandra and Gorai, Kaliakoir and Nabinagar,” Gazipur Assistant Police Superintendent Sanjit Kumar Roy told the Dhaka Tribune.
“Removing the damaged or unfit vehicles from the highway is time-consuming. We had to unload cattle from damaged trucks before we could remove them from the highway,” he added.
Talking to our correspondent at Chandana intersection, Gazipur Traffic Assistant SP Md Shakhawat Hossain said vehicles were moving slowly as the pressure of vehicles had intensified in Bhogra bypass area.
“Besides, the construction of four lanes on Dhaka-Mymensingh highway had intensified the pressure of vehicles,” he added.
According to Gazipur police, 42 police teams on motorcycle and cars, three watchtowers and 14 IP cameras were being used to ease traffic jam in Kaliakoir, Maona, Chandra and Chandana areas. Besides, 800 policemen were working to deal with the situation.
At Kamalapur railway station, it was found that almost all trains had missed its schedule. Dinajpur-bound Ekota Express was scheduled to leave the station at 10am, but departed around 2:30pm, Rangpur Express was scheduled to depart around 9am, but it could not reach the station by 4:30pm. Later, the railway authority arranged a substitute train for Rangpur passengers.
Chattola Express was two-and-a-half-hour late while leaving the station for Chittagong while on the same route, Mohanagar Godhuli was supposed to reach the station for outbound journey around 2:50pm, but the authority announced that the train would reach the platform by 10pm and start for Chittagong an hour after.
Surprisingly, Chittagong-bound Subarna Express left the station on time, around 3pm, when Railway Minister Mujibul Haque was present at the station for a visit.
Saying the schedule collapse was “unintentional,” the railway minister told the media: “It’s not true that all trains missed the schedule. For extra passengers, including women, senior citizens and children, it took extra time to leave the stations,” he said.
He also blamed the BNP for the bad condition of railways, saying: “They [BNP] did not take care of the railways during their rule. Trains now need to slow down at many points due to fragile condition of the rail tracks.”
At Sadarghat launch terminal, crowd of home-goers intensified as the day followed. Most of the launches left the terminal with passengers beyond its capacities.
At Mawa ferry ghat in Munshiganj, hundreds of vehicles were seen waiting for ferry while small vessels were carrying extra passengers. Some 13 out of 17 ferries at Mawa ferry ghat were now working to transport the vehicles.
Asked about the overloaded launches, BIWTA Traffic Inspector Riad Hossain said: “The passengers are not paying heed to our warnings. Launch operators are also not asking them not to board overcrowded launches.”
Many passengers were boarding launches as the ferries were not operating on time.
Most buses could not maintain the schedule due to traffic congestion on highways and queues at ferry ghats.
However, the pressure of passengers was lower at Mohakhali, Sayedabad and Gabtoli bus terminals.
