The distance from Kuril to Sadarghat is 14 kilometers. One afternoon, Google Maps showed it would take 1 hour 24 minutes by car with traffic, and just 31 minutes without it.
But how long would it take by bus? I decided to find out on a weekday.
On Thursday, 9 October, at 8:00 am, I boarded a bus from Kuril. From the outside, it looked worn out; the inside was no better. The seat covers were grimy and sticky with accumulated dirt. As I squeezed into an empty window seat at the back, my knees pressed hard against the seat in front, leaving barely enough room to sit.
According to the Road Transport Act, a city minibus should have 31 seats including the driver’s. This one had 39.
From Kuril to Nodda, there are officially three bus stops. But this bus stopped 11 times — wherever passengers wanted to get on or off, the driver obliged. Such scenes play out on nearly every road in the capital.
It took over 15 minutes for the bus to move a few hundred yards from Paltan to the National Press Club. At Matsya Bhaban, the driver parked across another bus to block it, triggering a chain of honking from behind until he reluctantly moved on.
Next to me sat Belal Hossain, a businessman from Khilkhet, heading to Dholaikhal to collect some machine parts for his small car repair shop. He said he left home early hoping to avoid traffic, but it made little difference. “If buses followed the rules,” he said, “we’d all reach faster.”
Although the busy Progoti Sarani stretch has designated stops, they are rarely observed. Only when senior traffic officers are present do drivers reluctantly follow the law. Otherwise, they halt anywhere to pick up or drop passengers, just like this one.
From Nodda to Sadarghat, the journey was slow. Leaving Kuril at 8:00 am, I reached Sadarghat two and a half hours later. Major traffic snarls hit at Badda Link Road, Rampura Bridge, near Abul Hotel, Kakrail, Gulistan, Suritola, Tantibazar, Bangshal, and Johnson Road — caused largely by rickshaws crowding the streets and buses blocking lanes to collect passengers. Long signal waits worsened the jams.
If buses followed the rules, we’d all reach faster.Belal Hossain, a businessman from Khilkhet
Previously, buses on the Sadarghat route stopped near Bahadur Shah Park, but after a new U-turn was introduced, they now turn back from the Dholaikhal side. As a result, passengers must get off at Johnson Road and take a rickshaw to Sadarghat — another ordeal, as the narrow roads choke with battery-powered rickshaws.
From Johnson Road, I boarded another bus — this time a “Bihanga” service heading for Mirpur-12. The bus looked just as shabby and moved just as erratically. The first jam appeared at Tantibazar. A few minutes later, traffic cleared, only for the bus to stop again to wait for passengers. Through the window, I watched the usual chaos — unplanned roads and utter lack of control.
Near Suritola, roadwork by Dhaka South City Corporation had narrowed the Sadarghat-bound lane to half its width. Construction materials cluttered the remaining space, while hawkers occupied the footpaths, forcing pedestrians onto the road and further slowing traffic.
Then came Gulistan — the city’s familiar bottleneck. Buses stopped mid-road to take passengers, blocking entire lanes as if that weren’t an offense. Inch by inch, the bus crept to Paltan. Above, trains zipped along the metro line; below, traffic crawled like molasses.
It took over 15 minutes for the bus to move a few hundred yards from Paltan to the National Press Club. At Matsya Bhaban, the driver parked across another bus to block it, triggering a chain of honking from behind until he reluctantly moved on.
After crossing Shahbagh, the bus stopped again to pick up passengers, then crawled to the next signal near Hotel InterContinental. New semi-automated traffic lights have been installed here, but they’re of little help. Since Dhaka’s automatic signaling system barely functions, traffic police are left struggling to control movement by hand.
Yet, over the past two decades, four modernisation projects have cost nearly Tk 1.90 billion, with little benefit for commuters. The interim government is now installing new locally-made signal lights at 22 intersections under the two city corporations, at a cost of about Tk 180 million.
Past the InterContinental, the bus stopped again at Banglamotor amid another tangle of vehicles competing for passengers. More congestion followed at Karwan Bazar, where a new U-turn now slows traffic even further. At Farmgate, the bus idled for 12 minutes waiting for riders.
Heading toward Indira Road, construction of the elevated expressway ramp had taken up more than half the road, creating another bottleneck. The bus stopped again at Zia Udyan and Agargaon signals, before inching through Shewrapara and Kazipara — and finally meeting the day’s worst jam at Mirpur-10, where it took 13 minutes to pass a single signal.
Eventually, the bus reached Mirpur-12. The clock read 12:30 pm.
The journey that began at 8:00 am in Kuril — from Dhaka’s southern end to its northern edge — had taken four and a half hours. Half a day lost on the capital’s roads, amid choking air pollution.
A 2022 report by the World Bank and BUET’s Accident Research Institute highlighted the worsening trend. In 2007, the average traffic speed in Dhaka was 21 km per hour. By 2022, it had dropped to just 4.8 km per hour.