3.5 hrs from Khulna to Dhaka, then hours of gridlock at Jatrabari

On the morning of 29 September, bus driver Ramzan Ali left Khulna at 9:00 a.m. and reached Jatrabari around 12:30 p.m. By 1:30 p.m., he was still stuck at the Gulistan toll plaza on the Mayor Hanif Flyover. He was exhausted. He honked repeatedly, but to no avail. Peeking inside the bus, one could see fatigue and irritation on nearly every passenger’s face.

Ramzan said, “It takes me only three and a half hours to reach Dhaka, but what’s the point? We sit for hours on the flyover.”

On October 4, around 11:00 a.m., a bus bound for Gulistan had been stuck at the Jatrabari intersection for about half an hour. Looking through the window, there were rows of buses, trucks, rickshaws, and motorcycles standing still. Many annoyed passengers got off and started walking.

A little ahead, a large cargo truck had overturned on the opposite side of the road, and recovery work was underway. The lane was completely blocked, and vehicles from that side had started moving onto the wrong lane, causing a total gridlock in both directions. The congestion had spread into the surrounding alleys of Jatrabari.

At 10:00 p.m. on the same day, a bus coming from Mirpur toward Jatrabari was stuck near the Sayedabad rail crossing. The bus hadn’t moved for about half an hour. A middle-aged passenger, visibly irritated, kept peeking out the window. After several attempts, he said to the passenger next to him, “Look, not a single car — it’s all battery-run rickshaws. See how they’ve blocked the road.”

Every day, vehicles from about 40 districts across the country use the Mayor Hanif Flyover and the road below it to enter Dhaka. Since the opening of the Padma Bridge, traffic on this route has increased even more.

However, severe congestion frequently occurs both on and beneath the flyover due to unplanned design, weak management, and disregard for traffic laws,. As a result, the advantage of reaching Dhaka faster is largely lost. Commuters on this route suffer daily.

According to the Mayor Mohammad Hanif Flyover Project, the flyover is about 11.5 kilometers long and connects Shanir Akhra, Jatrabari, Sayedabad, and Gulistan to Chankharpul.

Vehicles enter the flyover mainly from four points—Shanir Akhra, Demra, Sayedabad, and Dolairpar. Among them, vehicles from Narayanganj, Munshiganj, and other nearby districts as well as those from the Chattogram division enter through Shanir Akhra; those from the Sylhet division and northeastern districts enter via Demra; and those from the Barishal and Khulna divisions, and other southwestern regions, enter via Dolairpar. Vehicles from various other regions also use the Sayedabad point to access the flyover.

In addition, residents of Jatrabari, Dolairpar, Jurain, Demra, Shanir Akhra, Signboard, and Matuail within Dhaka use the flyover for daily commuting.

From 29 September to 1 October, visits to the four entry points of the flyover showed that the highest traffic enters through the Demra and Dolairpar points. During peak hours, more than 120 vehicles per minute—both public and private—were seen entering through these two points. The entry rate at the other points was similar.

Traffic jams commonly occur in three sections of the flyover: at the entry ramps, in the Sayedabad section, and near the Gulistan–Chankharpul exits.

At Dolairpar, interdistrict buses stop on the road before getting on the flyover to pick up and drop off passengers, creating jams right at the entrance. Even after getting onto the flyover, vehicles slow down at Sayedabad and remain in gridlock until the Gulistan–Chankharpul area.

One of the main reasons for the slowdown at Sayedabad is the toll plaza. Additionally, local buses stop randomly on the flyover to load and unload passengers, worsening the congestion.

Upon exiting, the four-lane flyover narrows into two lanes at Gulistan and just one lane at Chankharpul, forcing vehicles to wait long periods to pass.

Private service holder Lutfor Rahmana commutes daily from Narayanganj to Dhaka. He said, “The worst suffering is while getting down from the flyover at Gulistan. Sometimes it takes one to one and a half hours. Then, after passing the toll counter, it’s another struggle because the road from there to Baitul Mukarram is occupied by street vendors.”

There is also a road below the flyover connecting Jatrabari and Gulistan. Its condition is terrible. A recent visit from Jatrabari to Sayedabad under the Mayor Hanif Flyover revealed broken sections and multiple potholes due to poor maintenance. Even light rain causes waterlogging, while during dry seasons, the air fills with dust.

One of the key causes of congestion on this road is the Sayedabad Bus Terminal. According to the Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC), in 1984, land was allocated at Anandabazar, Sayedabad, Gabtoli, and Mohakhali to relocate the central bus terminal from Gulistan. The then–Dhaka City Corporation built three terminals—at Sayedabad, Gabtoli, and Mohakhali.

DSCC sources say the Sayedabad terminal officially has the capacity to hold 700–800 buses, but transport sources report that 2,500 to 3,000 buses are kept there. There are also allegations of drug dens operating inside the walled terminal.

Outside the terminal, hundreds of illegal transport counters have sprung up, often with multiple counters for the same company. Buses load and unload passengers right in front of these counters, often parking outside instead of inside the terminal to pick up extra passengers. This narrows the main road and causes severe traffic congestion.

Asked about this, Jahangir Shikdar, vice president of the Dhaka Road Transport Owners’ Association, told Prothom Alo the owners are hostage to an invisible syndicate of brokers in the transport business. If this powerful syndicate can be dismantled, the Sayedabad terminal’s problems could be solved.

In 2023, the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) published a survey titled Reducing Pollution for a Green City. It found that passengers in Dhaka spend 46 minutes in traffic every two hours — about 276 hours per person per year.

Meanwhile, according to the World Bank and the Accident Research Institute (ARI) at BUET, the average traffic speed in Dhaka dropped from 21 km/h in 2007 to just 4.8 km/h in 2022. Traffic congestion wastes about 8.2 million working hours per day in Dhaka, valued at around Tk 1.39 billion (139 crore) as of 2022.

Rezaul Karim, a private service holder who travels daily from Rayerbag to Karwan Bazar, said, “The flyover was built for convenience — to cover long distances in 15 minutes. But now it regularly takes over an hour. On the ground, if you’re stuck in traffic, you can at least think of alternative routes. But once you’re stuck on the flyover, you can’t go forward or backward. The loss outweighs the benefit.”

To reduce congestion, more attention should be given to the roads below the flyover, says Adil Mohammad Khan, president of the Bangladesh Institute of Planners.

He told Prothom Alo, “Modern urban transport planning does not encourage the construction of flyovers. The unplanned construction of flyovers in Dhaka has not solved traffic problems. In fact, some flyovers experience hours-long jams. In many cases, the flyovers have reduced the traffic-handling capacity of the roads below them.”

“There’s little that can be done on the flyover itself. The roads underneath must be repaired to divert some of the traffic. At the same time, traffic police monitoring needs to be strengthened,” he added.

Md Azad Rahman, deputy police commissioner (traffic) of DMP’s Wari Zone, told Prothom Alo that efforts are underway to move transport counters from the roadside near Jatrabari to within the Sayedabad Bus Terminal. Regular activities are also ongoing to ease congestion in the area.

Last July, Jatrabari was one of the epicenters of the nationwide movement. According to the government gazette, the highest number of deaths from indiscriminate police firing occurred in this area — 117 in total. But more than a year after the mass uprising, this area still remains largely ignored by policymakers. Locals are angry. They allege that since vehicles move overhead, authorities are neglecting maintenance below, causing chronic congestion.

Solaiman, brother of martyr Md Atikur Rahman from the July Uprising, said, “The spirit of the July movement was to change the state structure. When the state itself hasn’t changed, how will Jatrabari change? Jatrabari contributed the most to that uprising, yet even after a year, its roads are full of potholes, and the stench of garbage makes walking unbearable.”