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Eid shopping frenzy chokes traffic

Staff Correspondent
On any weekend, it just takes five minutes to reach Farmgate from Shahbag intersection and vice versa by a car. But it was a bitter experience for the commuters yesterday as it took them a staggering 90 minutes to cross the two-kilometre stretch.
On the 15th day of Ramadan, city dwellers seemed to have come out of their houses on a shopping spree --leading to huge tailbacks in the most important parts of the capital from noon.
Dhaka University student Palash took a bus from Shabagh around 4:00pm, to Farmgate. The bus remained almost unmoved due to heavy traffic.
When it reached near the Ruposhi Bangla Hotel, he got asleep.
Waking up from sleep after around one hour, he found the bus was yet to cross the Bangla Motor intersection, which is only half a kilometre from the hotel.
"Usually it takes five to 10 minutes to reach Farmgate from Shahbagh. But today [Saturday], the situation is quite different," said Pal ash.
"It has been a common scene every year during this time of Ramadan. More people throng the shopping malls at noon and long tailbacks become regular worries," said Alamgir Kabir, deputy commissioner (Traffic-South).
Shoppers park their vehicles in front of the markets, narrowing down the roads. They do not always obey the law, he noted. "We are helpless in this situation. We will have to face this situation everyday till the Eid."
Thousands of people crowd die capital ahead of die Eid for various reasons.
People mainly from die low-income group come here to earn extra income, while many villagers visit the city for Eid shopping, mentioned Alarngir.
A lot of shoppers could not return home in dine to take Iftar. Many were seen breaking their fast at markets and even in buses and autorickshaws.
Vehicles were forced to lake detours to avoid traffic jams in front of the shopping ce n ire s an d ma rke ts.
Arif Newaz, a motorcyclist from Pallan, said he had to change his route thrice to reach Farm gate from the Jadya Press Club.
Despite die attempts, it look him almost an hour to reach his destination, which is a 10-minute trip.
Witnesses said the traffic jams were more severe in front of Mouchak Market, Bangabazar, New Market, Gausia, Bashundhara City Shopping Mall, Eastern Plaza, Rapa Plaza, Shimanto Square (formerly known as Rifles Square), Ramna Bhaban, Farmgate, Elephant Road, Karwan Bazar, Moghbazar and Gulistan.
Hundreds of cars were seen parked on both sides of the roads in front of the shopping malls and markets, causing further gridlocks on the near bystreets.
Passengers of taxi cabs and CNG-run auto-rickshaws had to count more than double the no mi al fares.
The cabbies and auto-rickshaw drivers, though, said they could not earn their