SONARGAON, NARAYANGANJ, Apr 4: Severe traffic congestion crippled two of the country's busiest highways, leaving thousands of passengers and transport workers in distress. From early Friday morning until evening, a tailback stretching nearly 15 kilometres clogged the Dhaka-Chattogram highway from Sonargaon to Siddhirganj, and the Dhaka-Sylhet highway up to Rupganj.
Eyewitnesses said two separate accidents and a vehicle breakdown on the Dhaka-Chattogram highway triggered the gridlock. As a result, traffic came to a standstill from Meghna toll plaza in Sonargaon to the Signboard area in Siddhirganj.
On the Dhaka-Sylhet highway, congestion spread from Ruposhi in Rupganj to the Kanchpur bridge area in Sonargaon. Hundreds of vehicles were stuck for hours, forcing traffic to crawl at a snail's pace before the situation worsened into a full-scale jam.
Passengers heading to workplaces and long-distance destinations suffered immensely. Transport operators said prolonged standstills also drove up fuel consumption, adding to their costs.
Ashraful Alam Manik, a passenger travelling from Chandina, Cumilla, to Dhaka, said: "My brother is hospitalised in Dhaka. I have been sitting in the bus for two hours since morning, but we still haven't crossed Sonargaon. I don't know when I will reach the city."
Rozina Akhter, travelling with her children on a Sylhet-bound bus near Kanchpur, said: "We have been stuck since morning. The children are restless and frustrated, but there is no way forward."
Yasin Sarkar, driver of a Tisha Paribahan bus, added: "It took me two hours just to reach Madanpur from Jatrabari. If jams continue like this, we won't even be able to recover our operating costs."
Highway police officials said they rushed to the scene to clear the blockages. Md Julhaz Uddin, in-charge of Shimrail Highway Police Camp, stated: "We quickly removed the broken-down vehicles from the highway. Traffic flow returned to normal by late afternoon."
