25 km tailback at Jamuna bridge area

The pressure of vehicles due to the Eid journey has led to a 25-kilometre tailback along the Dhaka-Tangail-Jamuna Bridge highway.

The homebound people have been experiencing this congestion since early Thursday. As a result, vehicles are moving slowly and intermittently.

Police sources say people are returning home to spend the holy Eid-ul-Azha with friends and families. So the number of vehicles on the road is much higher than normal times. Several vehicles broke down at different points on the highway during the night, causing traffic congestion. There was a 25-kilometre-tailback up to the bypass along the Tangail city around 9:00 am. Vehicles were seen standing still at the same place for a long time.

Speaking to Prothom Alo, a Dinajpur-bound passenger, said they reached the Tangail bypass area at 7:00 am in the morning. They were able to cover only six to seven kilometres in two hours.

Sources at the toll plaza of Jamuna bridge said northbound vehicles were allowed to use both lanes of the bridge for about an hour this morning to ease the traffic congestion. As many as 52,000 vehicles crossed the Jamuna Bridge in the last 24 hours.

A total of 51,849 vehicles crossed the Jamuna Bridge in the 24 hours from 12:00 am Wednesday. This generated a toll collection of Tk 35.98 million. Ahsanul Kabir, Executive Engineer at the Jamuna Bridge Site Office of the Bangladesh Bridge Authority confirmed the figures to Prothom Alo.

According to sources at the Jamuna Bridge toll plaza, from 12:00 am on Wednesday to 12:00 am on Thursday, a total of 30,845 vehicles crossed the bridge heading towards the northern region of Bangladesh, generating tolls worth Tk 18,497,350.

On the other hand, 21,004 vehicles travelled from the north towards Dhaka, generating tolls of Tk 17,485,650. Normally, some 16,000 to 18,000 vehicles would cross the bridge in a day.