Tailbacks clog Dhaka roads
Vehicles caught in tailback stretching from Shahbagh to Bijoy Sarani in the capital yesterday evening. The photo was taken from Farmgate on Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue around 7.30 pm. Photo: Sk Enamul Haq
Commuters in the capital were stuck in traffic congestion for hours yesterday due to frequent VVIPs' movement and a political programme. Many traversing the Mirpur to Shahbagh, via Agargaon and Bijoy Sarani, road route complained that it took double the usual time to reach their destinations. BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir went to former president Ziaur Rahman's grave at Chandrima Udyan at noon with a newly elected committee of pro-BNP Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) to offer prayers. Scores of JCD activists arrived at the venue, causing tailbacks in the adjoining roads, stated vehicle drivers who passed the venue. Seven new ministers also took oath at Bangabhaban yesterday and their movement might have added to the unusual tailbacks, said traffic police sources. It took Mohammad Mainuddin, an employee of Ispahani Mirzapur Tea sales centre in Gulistan, an extra two hours to reach his workplace after boarding a bus from Kazipara around 8:00am. “I should have reached my office at 9:30pm. It has become impossible to predict how early I should leave home,” said Mainuddin. The traffic congestion caused a lawyer, Md Shajalal, to face an embarrassing situation as his client was kept waiting for around two hours at his Judge's Court chamber in the old part of Dhaka. “I boarded a bus from Mirpur-12 at 9:00am and should have reached my chamber at 10:30am,” he said. A private car driver, Mohammad Shawkat Hossain, said illegal parking along the route mainly causes the traffic congestion. Bus drivers along the Mirpur-10 to Shewrapara route stop their vehicles right in the middle of the road to take passengers, giving no scope for others behind to pass, said the driver of a CNG-run auto-rickshaw, Humayun Kabir.
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