Commuters suffer awful traffic jam

The road that connects the Padma Bridge to Shariatpur (Shariatpur - Dhaka Road) town experiences heavy traffic on a regular basis due to its narrow nature, causing immense suffering to commuters day in and day out. 

Along with being narrow, parts of the roadway are damaged and in desperate need of repairs, making accidents more likely.

Shariatpur is one of the connecting districts of Padma Bridge. As such, residents of the district naturally expect to benefit from the easy commute to Dhaka and other districts provided by the bridge.

However, the narrow and damaged roadway not only causes heavy traffic but also carries the risk of accidents. It is difficult for buses and other heavy vehicles coming from the opposite direction to cross safely.

Heavy traffic jams are a daily occurrence on this road and travellers get delayed by at least 3-4 hours every day to and from the town.

The residents of Shariatpur demand the connecting road from Padma Bridge to the town be converted into a four-lane roadway.

After the inauguration of Padma Bridge, transport services launched luxury bus services on the Shariatpur-Dhaka route. 

Faruk Ahmed Talukdar, President of Shariatpur Road Transport Owner Group, said about a hundred passenger busses have started plying on the Shariatpur-Dhaka route. 

But the efforts all went in vain as the road from Zajira end of Padma bridge to Shariatpur district town creates severe traffic, stalling vehicular movements.

According to local sources, even though the construction of Padma Bridge began in 2014, there have been no efforts to fix the Shariatpur link road.

Roads and Highways Department (RHD) sources said there is supposed to be a four-lane connecting road from the Naodoba approach road of Padma Bridge to the Fire Service office of Shariatpur town.

As part of this project, the construction work of a 34 metres wide two-lane road has started in the Premtola area. RHD expects to complete it within the next two years. 

On March 24, 2019, Deputy Minister of Water Resources, AKM Enamul Hoque Shameem, MP, sent a letter to the Secretary of Road Transport and Highways Division about constructing a four-lane road connecting Sariatpur Sadar and Zajira upazila.

The deputy minister sent two more letters in October 2020 to take quick initiative in this regard.

On February 18, 2020, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council approved the Shariatpur-Jazira-Naodoba (Padma Bridge Approach) road development project at a cost of Tk 1,682 crore.

Shariatpur RHD Executive Engineer Bhuyan Redwanur Rahman said due to the delay in land acquisition for the road and the lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic, the construction work on the connection road is behind schedule.

However, due to the delay in the implementation of the four-lane road, three cluster projects are being implemented to improve the road from Naodoba to Shariatpur.

“Although the road is currently a two-lane, it will later be upgraded to four lanes. All three projects have already been tendered, construction has started and will be completed by 2024,” Sajedur Rahman added.

Shariatpur-1 Constituency Member of Parliament Iqbal Hossain Apu said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has taken many initiatives in the development of the country and the Padma Bridge is an example of it.

“It saddens me that the people of Shariatpur are not getting the benefits of the Padma Bridge fully. Along with the other parliament members of Shariatpur, I have taken the initiative to ensure the construction of the connecting road,” he said.

He added that the construction work has already begun and the residents of the district will soon be able to commute with ease and safety.