Dhaka witnessed vexing traffic jams at different points across the city on Thursday as a large number of people streamed into Tongi for the BishwaIjtema, the largest congregation of Muslims after the Hajj.
The traffic jam on the Uttara-Airport road became severe from early morning, which affected other roads of the capital as well.
Traffic congestion was seen in various areas including Gulshan, Banani, Badda, Tejgaon Industrial Area, Farmgate, Mirpur Road and so on.
A Human Hauler driver of Tejgaon area MdKashem said, “I am coming to drive a Human Hauler at 7 am (on Thursday). Terrible jams have been seen ever since. I don’t remember the last time I saw such a jam.”
MdSalahuddin, a traffic police inspector at Mohakhali, said that the flow of traffic on the airport road started to slow down in the early hours of the day and came to a complete halt in the morning. However, the movement of vehicles resumed again after 11:30 am, he said.
Sathi Akter, who came to Farmgate from Mohammadpur, said, “There is a traffic jam on the road from Mohammadpur bus stand. I was in the jam for a long time after reaching Asad Gate. It took 30 minutes to reach Farmgate from Khamarbari which usually takes two minutes.”
Nabid Kamal Shaibal, deputy commissioner of traffic police in Uttara, singled out the Ijtema as the reason behind the jam. Devotees are arriving in Tongi in cars before walking to the Ijtema ground on the banks of the Turag River.
A lot of people are crossing the road on foot, holding up traffic in the process.
Although the Ijtema is scheduled to begin on Friday, the ground has been filling up since Wednesday night, Shaibal said.
Claiming that there were no errors in traffic management, Shaibal said that many people were crossing the main road on foot, which led to traffic jams on both sides of the street.
