The Chittagong city is faced with severe traffic jams since the beginning of this Ramadan with most of its roads clogged particularly during the iftar hours.
The traffic department of the Chittagong Metropolitan Police expressed its helplessness in tackling the problem, anticipating a far worsened situation in the days to come when crowds would increase for Eid shopping.
Sources in the CMP traffic department said the worst jams occur on seven roads — Station Road stretched from the BRTC bus stoppage to New Market Crossing, Sheikh Mujib Road stretched from the Barik Building to Dewanhat Crossing, Jubili Road stretched between Amtoli and Enayet Bazar Crossing, Sirajuddoula Road stretched between Chawak Bazar and Andarkillah Crossing, Pathantoli Road stretched from Chowmuhuni to Kadamtoli Crossing, Agrabad Access Road stretched between Badamtoli and Barapul Crossing and Port Connecting Road stretched from Alangkar to Nimtoli Crossing.
Traffic pressure is no less on most lanes, by-lanes and a number of crossings, namely Tiger-pass Crossing, WASA Crossing, GEC Crossing, Sholoshahar Crossing, Muradpur Crossing, Bahadderhat Crossing, Kazir Dewri Crossing, Bokshirbit Crossing, Kotwali Crossing and Oxygen Crossing.
In these places vehicles pressure begins to mount usually after noon and gets severe by about four in the afternoon.
'All the traffic comes to a standstill by the iftar hour,' said the source in the traffic control department.
Amin Ullah, a shopkeeper at Reazuddin Bazar, said it took him about one and a half hours to reach his home at Halishahar on Monday evening.
'It usually takes me no more than 30 minutes to reach my home from Reazuddin Bazar by an auto-rickshaw. But on Monday I started about 5:30pm by an auto-rickshaw and went home at about 7:00pm,' he said.
As he was still on the road when the iftar hour came he had to take unhygienic food from the roadside shop to break his fast, Amin Ullah said.
Taslim Uddin, a banker, said he left New Market for his residence at Chawk Bazar at 6:00pm on rickshaw to reach there about 7:00pm on Monday.
'Usually it's a 15 to 20 minutes journey,' he said, observing that the traffic police had little to do the way vehicles were glued to each other during that period.
Faruque Ahmed, deputy commissioner of CMP traffic, said the severe afternoon traffic was caused by the commuters who desperately tried to reach home to have iftar with their families.
'It's a time when thousands of extra vehicles hit the roads simultaneously, paralysing the whole traffic system,' he said.
He also mentioned several reasons contributing to the increasing traffic jams of the city that included lack of expansion of city roads with a growing number of vehicles, inadequately trained drivers who lacked knowledge in traffic rules, frequent violation of traffic rules and insufficient manpower at the city traffic department.
'In all probability the situation will become worse on the road in the coming days of Ramadan when Eid shopping starts in full swing' he added.
Source : New Age
