Long tailback on Bangabandhu Bridge as homebound rush begins

Traffic on the Dhaka-Tangail-Bangabandhu Bridge highway has slowed over an 8km stretch due to excessive vehicle pressure and disruption of the toll collection at Bangabandhu Bridge on Friday night.

The congestion has resulted in a tailback, causing significant delays.

To handle the situation, 700 police personnel were deployed.

By 9:30am on Saturday, the slowdown was evident from Elenga to the eastern side of Bangabandhu Bridge, with vehicles inching forward since dawn.

On Friday night, toll collection at Bangabandhu Bridge was suspended from midnight until late night to manage the heavy traffic. This led to severe traffic jams, causing considerable inconvenience for travellers, particularly during the Eid holiday rush.

During Eid, there is a significant increase in northbound traffic. To mitigate congestion, the two-lane road from Elenga to Bangabandhu Bridge's eastern end was temporarily converted to a single lane. This adjustment allows northbound vehicles from Dhaka to cross the bridge directly from Elenga, while southbound vehicles from North Bengal take a regional road from Bangabandhu Bridge east roundabout through Bhuapur, rejoining the four-lane highway at Elenga after a 29km detour.

Despite these measures, reckless driving has led to occasional accidents, increasing the traffic jams.

Mir Md Sajedur Rahman, in-charge of Elenga Highway Police Outpost, said that reckless driving is a primary cause of the traffic congestion. He assured that the police are actively working to manage the situation, although some slow traffic persists.