14km tailback on Bangabandhu Bridge Highway

In the early hours of Saturday, a long tailback was created from the east side of Bangabandhu Bridge to Elenga in Tangail’s Kalihati, Bangabandhu Bridge East Police Station, Officer-in-charge (OC) Shafiqul Islam said.

“Around 1am a pickup van overturned on the highway. It took about an hour to remove the van. Also, the pressure of additional vehicles on the highway caused traffic jam. Besides, reckless driving was also the reason behind the long tailback,” he added.

Previously, a 15-km long traffic jam occurred on Friday in the same area late at night due to the axle of a truck coming loose at Kamakshar intersection of Kalihati upazila on the highway. As a result, traffic in two lanes of the highway was disrupted.

As a result of the traffic jam on the highway, Dhaka-bound vehicles cross the bridge and use the Bhuapur-Elenga link road from Golchattar towards Dhaka. Similarly, vehicles from Tangail City to Madhupur, Dhanbari and Mymensingh have to take the alternate route via Kalihati.

Last week, a 25-km-long traffic jam was created on the Bangabandhu Bridge-Dhaka highway on Thursday morning due to the disruption of goods transport. From the eastern end of Bangabandhu Bridge to Rabna Bypass of Tangail Sadar upazila, the queue of traffic was long. The traffic jam was caused due to the breakdown of goods vehicles at several places on the two-way road from the Bangabandhu Bridge roundabout to Elenga.

Officer-in-charge (OC) of Bangabandhu Bridge East Police Station Safiqul Islam said due to excessive traffic pressure on the highway, and disruption of traffic on the two-way lane, accidents involving goods and passenger vehicles have become a common occurrence from Gol Chattar to Elenga.