Eid shoppers on Friday rushed to the city markets, winning their freedom after the four day hartal ending on Thursday but the sudden crowd in the shopping malls left the streets of the capital in a traffic nightmare with gridlocks continuing late in the evening. The situation was worsened by not only the automobiles but also the ubiquitous rickshaws, reinforced by the newly arrived seasonal peddlers from the countryside for a quick income during Ramzan. It was 1.15 pm, a traffic policeman was seen helplessly waving a broken stick trying to keep the traffic on the move in front of the city’s Gawsia market. He had apparently given up to discipline the traffic , most in front of the New Market, where more than half of the two lanes of the 120 feet Mirpur Road was occupied by hawkers and horizontally parked cars, rest by rickshaws and large buses, moving at snail pace, creating a gridlock for drivers and traffic police.
A little down the New Elephant Road in front of the Science Laboratory, a traffic department wrecker was sitting idle. But it made no attempt to discipline the illegally parked cars in front of the shops and malls there.
Rickshaws and hawkers were prohibited to use both the Mirpur Road and the New Elephant Road but they were plying nonetheless, contributing to massive tailbacks, which stretched down to Shahbagh.
But hawkers setting up open air stall selling iftars and all kinds of wares occupied both the streets well into the evening.
The situation was the same in all other city streets barring a few without shopping malls, like the Abdul Ghani Road.
People were seen jumping out of the buses stuck in the traffic congestion or rickshaws unable to negotiate the jams to walk. But that too was difficult as the weather was not favourable. It was hot and humid despite a little rain.
In Shantinagar, Mouchak, Moghhbazar, Shymoli, Mirpur and all over in old quarters of the city, hawkers and temporary iftar sellers had their share for causing the traffic snarl, accentuated further by rains in the forenoon.
After a brief pause during iftar, the traffic tailback returned in the evening as more and more people rushed to the shopping streets and malls to make use of the weekend.
A traffic policeman at Science Laboratory crossing in the afternoon said, such a situation could continue during the entire Ramzan.
-With The Independent input
