Eid travellers face trouble going home

Despite government assurances, bus owners fear that travelling via road is going to be even more troublesome than usual for those travelling home on Eid as the latest bout of monsoon flooding has caused significant damage to the country’s road network. The Eid rush has started to gain momentum as people are leaving Dhaka to spend the Eid-ul-Azha holidays with their nearest and dearest around the country. Usually, nearly half the population of Dhaka leaves the city before every Eid, and around 55% of those homeward-bound people travel via road, according to the National Committee to Protect Shipping, Roads and Railways. Highway traffic is usually busy during the Eid rush, but this time it has gotten worse due to the flood and rain. Speaking to the Dhaka Tribune, bus owners and passengers shared their experiences of incredibly difficult journeys as the highways are riddled with potholes and, in some places, completely broken. The situation is even worse on the routes that have ferry services – which are frequently getting disrupted due to strong currents in the rivers. Due to these problems, a trip is taking three or four times longer than what it would normally take, bus owners said. Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader said there was no need for the holidaymakers to worry about travelling on the roads. “We have taken all necessary steps to ensure smooth travelling by repairing all the damaged roads,” he said on Friday during a visit to Chandra intersection in Gazipur. “All the engineers of the Roads and Highways Department are working on this problem. They have been warned not to neglect their duties using the excuse of rain; they are to take necessary precautions so the roads are protected from rain.” However, sources in the bus services said there had hardly been any progress in the repair work and the trips were still taking painstakingly longer than normal. Added to the outward rush of homeward-bound people is the trucks carrying sacrificial cattle into the capital city. There are also the makeshift roadside cattle markets that are taking up space on the roads and highways and disrupting the traffic, creating bottlenecks at important junctions and making an already bad situation worse. “Amid this circumstance, if the rain continues, it will get even more difficult for people to go home,” said a transport worker.Highways in dilapidated conditionsThe recent floods have severely affected the country’s road network, especially in the northern and northeastern districts. Four of six major highways that connect all 64 districts in the country with Dhaka – Dhaka-Khulna, Dhaka Sylhet, Dhaka Barisal and Dhaka-North Bengal – are covered with potholes and/or submerged in floodwater. According to the Roads and Highways Department, flood has cut off 17 roads from the country’s road network. Dinajpur and Kurigram districts are completely disconnected, and road transport in Netrokona has collapsed as five of the district’s major roads are under water. The situation is similar in Jamalpur, Faridpur and Shariatpur districts. Around 600km of roads in the northern districts of Rangpur, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Bogra, Gaibandha, Joypurhat, Dinajpur, Thakurgaon, Panchagarh and Nilphamari have been damaged by the floods. These roads include 73 national and regional highways as well as district roads. At least 19 bridges and culverts have been damaged as well. Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader recently visited Sirajganj recently where he instructed to make the roads usable in 10 days, our Sirajganj correspondent reported. Following the instruction, the road and transport authorities started implementing the “herringbone system” – laying up bricks on the damaged roads – as a temporary solution, but it is failing due to rain. Insiders in the Roads and Highways Department said Eid rush puts excess pressure on the roads even when the roads are in good condition. If a small part of a highway is unusable, it creates huge traffic congestion.Ferry services in deep troubleThe Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) operates 19 small and large ferries between Paturia ghat in Manikganj and Daulatdia ghat in Rajbari to carry thousands of vehicles across the Padma River. BIWTC sources said most of these ferries were old, and they were facing immense difficulties in operating their services due to the strong current in the Padma. Each ferry is barely making 20 trips across the river every day, whereas normally the ferries can make 30 trips. Besides, three of the ferries are out of commission, putting extra pressure on the ferries that are in operation. Usually, it takes around 45 minutes for a ferry to cross the Padma, but due to the current state of water flow in the Padma, it is taking at least one and a half hours, the sources said. As a result, the queues of vehicles waiting for the ferries are getting longer, making the duration of the journey two or three times longer. Workers at the ferry ghats said because of this situation, there will be long tailbacks on both sides of the river with an average waiting time of three hours. Most buses will miss their schedule, they added. Ferry service on Shimulia (Mawa)-Kathalbari route is facing the same problem; ferries are taking almost double the time to cross the Padma due to the currents.Bus owners, passengers worriedTraffic congestion has already gotten bad on Dhaka-Chittagong, Dhaka-Khulna, Dhaka-Mymensingh and Dhaka-Sylhet highways. “Buses are already getting delayed, takes almost double the time due to the damaged highways in the northern districts such as Rajshahi and Khulna. Sylhet-bound roads are also in a sorry state,” Bangladesh Bus-Truck Owners’ Association President Faruk Talukder Sohel told the Dhaka Tribune. Narrow bridges, long wait at the ferry ghats have slowed down the traffic on the highways to Khulna, Jessore and Barisal, he said. “At this rate, I am worried that the trips may take double or even triple the usual time as Eid approaches.” He further said if the government had taken timely actions to ensure uninterrupted ferry services ferry and properly planned passage through the bridges, the situation would not have gotten so bad. “The Dhaka-Chittagong highway has been upgraded to four lanes, but the three major bridges on that highway are still two-lane,” said Green Line Paribahan General Manager Abdus Sattar. “As a result, it takes hours to pass through Meghna and Gumti bridges and creates huge traffic tailbacks. Because of that, a six-hour trip is now taking nearly double the time,” he added.