Traffic congestion has turned acute on most of the roads, lanes and by-lanes in the Chittagong city, particularly during the iftar hours.
Most of the city road started to experience severe tailback since the very beginning of the month of Ramadan even after the recent increase in the manpower of the traffic department.
According to the traffic sources, traffic on the Sheikh Mujib Road from Barik Building to Dewanhat crossing, Sirajuddoula Road from Chawkbazar to Andarkillah crossing, Pathantoli Road from Chowmuhuni to Kadamtoli crossing, Station Road from BRTC to New Market crossing, Jubili Road from Amtoli to Enayet Bazar crossing, Port Connecting Road from Alongkar to Nimtoli crossing, Agrabad Access Road from Badamtoli to Barapul crossing come almost to a standstill as the time of iftar drawn near.
Many of the fasting people often cannot have iftar on time for being stranded on the street while many others are forced to take unhygienic iftar from the roadside shops against their wills because of the intolerable traffic congestion.
Mahamudul Hasan, a banker, said he went out of his office at Agrabad to go to his residence at Kattali at 5:00pm in a CNG-auto-rickshaw, usually a journey of 20 to 25 minutes, and reached there after iftar.
‘Vehicles remain stranded on road in several rows with hardly any space between them before the iftar,’ he said, adding that the on-duty traffic men had a little to do with the situation.
Amirul Islam, a shopkeeper at Station Road in the city, said he started for his residence at Halishahar in an auto-rickshaw at 5:30pm to have iftar with the family members and reached there at about 7:00pm.
He also said he had to take unhygienic iftar from a wayside shop and added that usually he needed hardly 40 minutes to reach his residence from Station Road in an auto-rickshaw.
Kushum Dewan, deputy commissioner of the traffic department of the Chittagong Metropolitan Police, said the situation was better in comparison with the months of Ramadan in previous years as the department had 56 more traffic sergeants now.
He also said they had also deployed 200 community police in front of different markets and shopping malls after providing them with necessary training.
He, however, admitted that the situation goes out of control before iftar as a large number of city people start rushing towards their residences at a time to have iftar with their near and dear ones.
-With New Age input
