A total of 42,560 vehicles have crossed the Bangabandhu Bridge in Tangail in the past 24 hours, raising total tolls of Tk 32.5 million for the bridge authority.
From 6 am on Monday to 6 am on Tuesday, a total of 24,817 vehicles crossed from the bridge’s eastern end in Tangail, Bangabandhu Bridge Executive Engineer Md Ahsanul Kabir Pavel said on Tuesday. This raised Tk 16.69 million in tolls.
Another 17,743 crossed from the western end of the bridge in Sirajganj. The bridge authority earned Tk 15.9 million in tolls from these vehicles.
The traffic across the bridge ahead of Eid was several times greater than on regular days, Pavel said.
To avoid congestion, the bridge authority has set up additional toll booths on either side of the bridge.
Usually about 16,000-17,000 vehicles cross the bridge every day, he had said previously.
Accidents and vehicle breakdowns on Bangabandhu Bridge on the first day of the Eid holidays led to intermittent congestion on an 8-km stretch of the Dhaka-Tangail Highway.
Traffic was moving slowly on the stretch of road from the eastern end of Bangabandhu Bridge to the Hatia area of Tangail’s Kalihati area from midnight on Monday, said Zahid Hossain, chief of Elenga Highway Police Station.