Daylong traffic congestion at Dhaka-Chattogram Highway frustrates travellers

A covered van has overturned on the Dhaka-Chattogram Highway at Cumilla’s Chandina Upazila, causing a severe traffic bottleneck and piling misery on travellers in the thoroughfare’s Dhaka-bound lane.

The road was closed off since the accident took place on Wednesday, until 9am the day after, on Thursday, which affected the highway throughout the day.

The van was removed from the highway around seven hours after the accident occurred, which eased the congestion, confirmed Superintendent of Police for the Highway Eastern Region, Khairul Alam.

He said the highway police’s wrecker couldn’t move the van, which prompted them to bring in a crane to transport the vehicle, resulting in the long wait.

The congestion on both sides of the road also made it difficult to bring the crane to the site.

From midnight on Wednesday, long queues of cargo trucks, lorries, and covered vans lined the road after receiving news of the congestion. The situation worsened on Thursday morning as the number of passenger vehicles increased due to the beginning of a three-day public holiday, significantly slowing down the traffic.

Many passengers could not reach their destinations even after waiting on the road for three times their usual travel duration. The scorching sun and then the rain only added to their troubles.

Anisur Rahman, who was travelling to Dhaka with his father for a doctor’s appointment, said it usually takes them three hours to reach Dhaka from Chandina. They boarded the bus at 1:30pm and reached Dhaka at 6:30pm. By then, it was too late to see the doctor.

Zahurul Islam Shanto, who was travelling with his children from Cumilla to the Dhaka Zoo, said, “I set out early in the morning to go to the zoo with my children, but reached Dhaka in the afternoon. We spent most of the day on the road.”

“Vehicles moved extremely slowly at points like Eliotganj, Daudkandi Toll Plaza, and Vaberchar. We suffered a lot in the heat with our young children.”

Abdul Momin, a covered van driver heading to Chattogram from Dhaka, said: “We can't just drive recklessly like buses. We have to drive slowly because we carry heavy goods. But when we're stuck in traffic, buses drive recklessly, which worsens the congestion.”

Tipu Munshi, a driver for Asia Transport heading to Cumilla, said that traffic pressure on the highway has increased due to the May Day holiday, which is followed by the weekend, adding that the accident has made things worse, as they suffered the whole day.

The surge in vehicles also created congestion at the Meghna Gomati Bridge toll plaza in Cumilla’s Daudkandi. Toll collection for the unusually high volume of travellers backed up traffic on both sides of the bridge.

Later, police from Moynamoti, Eliotganj, and Daudkandi highway police stations, along with the joint forces, worked together to ease the gridlock. By late afternoon, traffic began flowing normally through the Cumilla section of the highway.

Ruhul Amin, chief of the Eliotganj Highway Police Station, confirmed that the covered van overturned around 2am at Nuritala in Chandina, immediately causing a massive traffic jam. The van weighed 22 tonnes and had to be removed with a wrecker which was brought in from Feni.