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Heavy vehicles still use old road just to avoid tolls

Nur Uddin Alamgir
Heavy vehicles still prefer to use the old Port Connecting Road instead of Chittagong Port .Access Road in order to avoid paying toll, causing massive traffic congestion in the port city.
Chittagong Port Access Road was constructed two and a half years ago to facilitate faster transportation of goods to and from Chittagong port and ease traffic congestion in the city as well.
The government is being deprived of huge revenue everyday due to poor utilisation of the road.
Sources said lack of proper monitoring by the authorities concerned is responsible for this.
Around 50 percent of the
heavy vehicles including trucks, oil tankers, covered vans, container movers and lorries continue to ply the old Port Connecting Road round-the-clock dodging tolls for Port Access Road, sources said.
Plying of heavy vehicles along the Port Connecting Road through the city centre causes a serious tailback in the city's Colonel Hat, Olankar Intersection, AK Khan Gate and Nayabazar areas during the peak hours, said the sources.
While visiting the toll plaza at the port-end on Sunday three of the six entry points were found closed.
To run all the six counters at a time is unnecessary as the number of vehicles plying the road is insufficient, said a staff of the firm
engaged for operation and maintenance.
Private farm Monico-ATT Consortium has been running the toll plaza on the operation and maintenance (O&M) basis since October 16,2008.
Engineer Al Amin, in-charge of the Toll Plaza, said on an average 2,500 to 2,800 vehicles ply the Access Road earning them on an average Tk 1 lakh a day.
A total of 87,854 vehicles passed through the road in July while 90,763 vehicles in June, he said.
Number of vehicles decreases in the holidays and on the workdays the number depends on the loading and unloading activities at the port jetties, he said.
Collection of tolls from heavy vehicles at Port
Connecting Road could have ensured proper utilisation of the Access Road and huge revenue everyday, he added.
The drivers of heavy vehicles also get scope to park their vehicles, mostly trucks, at different points of the road due to poor utilisa-
tion of the road.
When asked Roads and Highway (R&H) Sub Divisional Engineer Hasibur Rahman said they are emphasising increasing facilities rather than forcing the vehicles to ply the road.
"If the drivers get a jam-
free road they will use the Port Access Road spontaneously,” he said.
Assistant Commissioner (Traffic Port) of Chittagong Metropolitan Police Mostafizur Rahman told The Daily Star that the num-ber of vehicles would
increase here after comple-tion of the under-construction flyover that would connect the Port Access Road with Chittagong EPZ.
“We always encourage and motivate the drivers for using the Access Road
to ease pressure of vehicular traffic on the roads running through the city centre," Mostafiz said. Some of the trucks, however, go through the city heart to reach their terminal at the Port Connecting Road, he said.