BANGLADESH

Eid-ul-Azha holidaymakers are spending longer time on the highways in terrible traffic hold-up.

With the extra pressure of vehicles to transport travellers, passengers have to suffer several more hours as the makeshift cattle markets thrown up for the Eid even beside the highways have narrowed the road.

On the highways from Dhaka to Chittagong, Tangail and Mawa, the scenario was almost the same. Vehicles were crawling on Wednesday like they did on Tuesday.

It takes over an hour for the vehicles to cross one kilometre on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway due to the work to build the elevated expressway and the cattle markets.

The pains of the passengers on the highway starts at Jatrabari, the starting point of the vehicles destined for the southern and eastern districts. The regular jam on Kanchpur bridge remains, adding to the sufferings of the holidaymakers.

Vehicles moved at a snail's pace from Meghna bridge to Comilla's Gouripur on Wednesday.

Qamrul Islam, a passenger of a Comilla-bound Asia Line bus, told bdnews24.com that he started at 4pm and was fretting about when he would reach home.

"Several cattle markets have been set up beside the highway. Vehicles of other routes are increasing the pressure by using this highway," he said.

bdnews24.com's Comilla Correspondent was at Chouara Bazaar. He also put down the jam to the cattle markets.

At Mawa, a passage for 17 southern districts, the lack of piers caused the gridlock. Piers at Paturia of Manikganj and Daulatdia of Rajbari were also seemed to be inadequate to handle the vehicles. Passengers had to stop at the piers for around five hours on Wednesday.

Munshiganj Correspondent said three main terminals are out of order now. Vehicles are using two new piers, one of which is for lighter vehicles only, to cross the Padma river.

Over 600 vehicles stranded on each of the roads linked to the piers at the two ends, Mawa and Kewrakandi. The number was increasing fiercely.

The gridlock stretching from Gazipur's Chandra to Tangail's Karatia became longer for the trucks that could not use the pier at Mawa.
Rakibul Hasan from Biswas Betka of Tangail got on a bus at 6am in Dhaka. He reached Tangail at 1pm.

"I didn't get it why the vehicles got stuck for hours. We've come to know that the trend of the drivers of inter-district buses and cattle-laden trucks to make some extra profit by driving fast and overtaking others caused the gridlock," he said.

Tangail district Road Transport Workers Union General Secretary Mir Lutfar Rahman told bdnews24.com: "Not only the buses in Tangail, buses of northern and southern districts and cattle-laden trucks have created additional pressure."

Highway Police's Gorai station in-charge Sanwar Hossain said if a vehicle breaks down, it takes a long time to reach it, let alone repair or remove it fast.

Police have reopened traffic at Dhaka's key Shahbagh intersection after a nearly 6-hour halt following protests and vandalism by the Dhaka University students after the death of a fellow student in a road accident on Tuesday evening.

Traffic resumed around 1pm on Wednesday.

Touhid Uz Zaman, a second-year undergraduate student of the International Relations Department and a resident of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Hall, came under the wheels of a Rajdhani Express bus around 4:30pm on Tuesday as he was crossing the street near BIRDEM Hospital.

He succumbed to his injuries around 7:30pm. His remains were later sent to his ancestral home in Kishoreganj.

Infuriated by his death, fellow DU students had descended on the streets and smashed around 40 vehicles and also set on fire several of them in Shahbagh and New Market areas.

Their demonstrations led the traffic to a complete halt in these areas from 8pm until 11:45pm.

The demonstrations continued on Wednesday morning, too. The students were seen taking out a procession with a coffin.

Police had closed the roads linking the Shahbagh intersection in the morning even though traffic had resumed past-midnight on Tuesday. All vehicles were seen taking the road in front of the Rupasi Bangla Hotel.

The traffic halt caused long tailbacks at key points of the city, including Banglamotor, Karwan Bazar, Kakrail and Paltan.

Around 11:15am, nearly 200 students brought out a procession at the Shahbagh intersection from Modhur Canteen and organised a rally there.

They also spelt out several demands to ensure safety of teachers and students, including building an underpass at the Shahbagh intersection, punishing the bus driver responsible for the accident and the on-duty traffic police, compensating the deceased's family and the students who got injured during the Tuesday night's clash with the police, tightening of security at all the university entry points and barring outside vehicles from the campus.

Shammi Akter Happy, another student of the university's Psychology department, was also run over and killed by a bus at the same intersection on May 28, 2005. The university authorities facing tough protest had assured the students of building an underpass then, but the assurance never become a reality.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police's Ramna Zone Deputy Commissioner Nurul Islam had earlier told bdnews24.com that the traffic through the intersection was closed to avoid any more demonstrations and vandalism.

"The decision has been taken to ensure safety of the general people," he said.

Extra police personnel have also been deployed at all the different university entry points. Vehicles only with the university authorisation were allowed to enter the campus.

Police were also controlling the traffic at the other streets adjacent to the university in Kataban, Nilkhet, Polashi, Chankharpool and the High Court areas.

Meanwhile, ruling Awami League's student front Chhatra League's DU unit brought out a mourning procession around 11:30am over the death of Touhid Uz Zaman. DU Proctor Amzad Ali was seen in the procession.

The students of the International Relations Department also observed a human-chain programme around 12pm in front of the Arts Building protesting the death of their fellow student. Teachers of the department also joined hands with their students.