City commuters face huge traffic congestion

Staff Reporter :
Heavy traffic congestion on the Airport Road, which gripped the city since Wednesday, has made city a commuter’s nightmare because traffic continues to be a virtual standstill for hours on Thursday.
The 22km long tailback has gone beyond Tongi to the capital’s Mohakhali, Rampura, Moghbazar and Mirpur’s Kalshi.
Commuters, especially office-goers, to and from those areas seemed to suffer big time during the morning rush hours due to intense tailback that are choking the parts of the city.
According to traffic control sources, a U-tern in Tongi and heavy pressure of vehicles on the narrow Ashulia are to blame for this concurring traffic congestion on the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway.
Moreover, the first phase of the Bishwa Ijtema, the second largest congregation of Muslims, set to begin on 13 January (Friday) on the bank of the Turag River at Tongi has added to a load of traffic movement in the area.
Mohammad Saiful Malik, Assistant Commissioner of Traffic Police Uttara Division, said “Upcoming Bishwa Ijtema after a two-year hiatus has aggravated the Tongi bound traffic on Uttara road, an area already squeezed by the segmented construction of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project. All these have contributed to the worsened traffic situation in the area.”