Severe traffic congestion on streets of capital

There has been severe traffic congestion throughout the capital since morning today, Tuesday. Various streets of Dhaka city were still jam-packed with vehicles while writing this report in the afternoon.

Thousands of people gathered to participate in the Islamic grand rally at the Suhrawardy Udyan today. The Suhrawardy Udyan and the surrounding areas had been filled with followers of the Islamist groups.

Different vehicles carrying participants of today’s programme were seen moving on different streets of the capital right from the morning. Many participants were seen moving towards the site of the rally in feet also. Even the Metro Rail was crowded by people attending the rally.

A certain Zinnia Hasan was stuck at the SAARC fountain intersection for at least 10 minutes around 6:45 am in the morning. She said, “I have never seen such traffic congestion so early in the morning. I noticed a lot of vehicles moving on the street at such an early hour today.”

A resident of Shewrapara area in the capital, Nazrul Islam, travelled from his home to Karwan Bazar area on motorbike around 10:00 am in the morning. Though he could reach up to Bijoy Sarani without any trouble, he had to face severe traffic congestion after that point.

Nazrul Islam was saying, “The area from Bijoy Sarani to Farmgate had come to a standstill. The vehicles were stranded on the road. They were moving forward extremely slowly.”

Naznin Islam left her home in Bashundhara Residential Area with her child around 8:00 am in the morning. Taking the elevated expressway, she was able to reach Farmgate quite easily. But after that she was struggling to move towards her destination, Karwan Bazar. Finding no other way, she boarded the Metro Rail from there.

There was extreme traffic congestion in the Dhaka University campus area after 10:00 am in the morning. Visiting around the campus, acute traffic congestion was noticed on the surrounding streets.  And, there was the crowd of people who came to attend the rally around TSC of Dhaka University and Raju Memorial Sculpture.

The students who had started for Dhaka University campus to attend classes in the morning were also stuck in traffic congestion for a long time. Some of the departments suspended their classes because of the traffic congestion.

In this regard, proctor of Dhaka University Saifuddin Ahmed had told Prothom Alo, “We are trying to bring the situation under control. However, it seems impossible to bring such a huge number of people in control. We didn’t allow vehicles to be parked around the campus since last night. Yet, it wasn’t possible to bring the situation under control.”

There was severe traffic congestion noticed at Matsya Bhaban intersection, Mohakhali, Gulshan and Minto Road in the afternoon.