A long traffic tailback stretching at least 40 kilometres has developed on the Dhaka-Chattogram highway.

Although vehicles moved intermittently throughout Friday (28 August), the situation worsened significantly after the afternoon.

Traffic remained almost at a standstill on the affected section of the highway on Saturday morning, causing immense suffering to passengers on long-distance buses, drivers and workers of goods-laden vehicles, who remained stranded on the road for hours.

Long queues of vehicles were seen on the Dhaka-bound lane from the Ashariar Char Bridge area in Narayanganj to Daudkandi on Friday night.

While vehicles moved slowly at some points, traffic remained virtually stationary for most of the time. The tailback continued to grow longer as time passed.

Saiful Alam, a bus passenger stranded in the traffic jam at midnight, said, “I left Cumilla for Dhaka in the evening, but I had not even reached Daudkandi by 11:30pm.”

Ahmed Karim, a driver of the long-distance bus service Star Line, said, “There is already a heavy volume of vehicles on the road. On top of that, one lane has been closed, forcing all vehicles to use a single lane. This has caused the long traffic jam.”

According to sources at the Roads and Highways Department, recent heavy rainfall has created potholes of varying sizes at several points on the Dhaka-Chattogram highway, making vehicle movement risky.

In particular, a large pothole developed on the Dhaka-bound section of the highway at Ashariar Char in Narayanganj, prompting authorities to begin emergency repair and maintenance work.

Kanchpur Highway Police Station Officer-in-Charge Shafiul Islam said the Roads and Highways Department was carrying out emergency repair work on one of the two lanes of the highway at Ashariar Char.

“As vehicles are being allowed to pass alternately through a single lane, a temporary traffic jam has developed,” he said.

He added that several teams of highway police were working at different points on the highway to keep traffic moving and control the congestion.

“Efforts are underway to complete the repair work quickly and restore normal traffic movement,” he said.