Eid rush leads to heavy traffic at Padma Bridge, Mawa expressway

Highways are facing heavy traffic as holidaymakers have started returning to their village homes to celebrate the Eid-ul-Azha with their dear and near ones.

On Friday, the first day of vacation, a huge traffic congestion was seen in the Padma Bridge area in Louhajong of Munshiganj, starting in the morning. The tailback extended at least seven kilometers from the toll plaza at the Mawa end to the Chanbari area in Srinagar, leaving homebound people stuck for hours.

The situation improved somewhat in the afternoon, but a one-and-a-half-kilometer traffic jam was still seen in the Dogachi area of the Mawa expressway around 3:00 pm.

According to police and local sources, the rush of holidaymakers to southern districts began Thursday night, which increased traffic pressure on the highway. A number of trucks were seen waiting at the weighing scale of the Padma Bridge's toll plaza on Thursday night, and the queue of trucks lengthened on Friday.

Sharing his ordeal, Salauddin, an employee of a pharmaceutical company in Dhaka and hailing from Galachipa upazila in Patuakhali, said he started early in the morning to go home for various tasks including purchasing cattle. He thought there would be no traffic jam in the morning.

In reality, he reached the Padma Bridge's toll plaza quickly from Dhaka but then got stuck in a traffic gridlock. He managed to pay the toll and resume his car journey after a wait of two hours.

Similarly, Miraj Hossain, who is from Batiaghata in Khulna, was traveling home by motorcycle. He said, "I am going home to celebrate Eid with my family but got stuck in a long traffic jam at the Mawa toll plaza."

Due to the slow pace of toll collection, he had to wait there for a long time in the sweltering heat. He reached the Dogachi area at 10:30 am and managed to cross the bridge by 12:00 PM.

Ziaul Haider, a traffic inspector from Mawa, said the congestion resulted from trucks stuck in the truck lane at the toll plaza's weighing scale since last night.

"Traffic congestion has started to ease, but there is still heavy traffic on the highway," he added.