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Home-goers suffer on highways

Star Report
With the unofficial holiday of over a week beginning yesterday, people heading home for Puja and Eid celebrations had to deal with huge tailbacks on highways.
Potholes and narrow roads coupled with roadside bazaars and cattle markets have added to the woes of the home-goers. Some got stuck on highways for hours.
Although the four-day public holiday for the two biggest religious festivals in the country' begins on Monday, a large number of city dwellers left Dhaka yesterday taking leave for the only working day of the week, Sunday.
With a leave on Sunday, most got a nine-day holiday with the weekends added.
Even though the crowd at inter-district bus terminals and railway stations were yet to reach their peaks, the holidaymakers had to face difficulties in crossing the exits and entw to the capital, especially Gabtoli and Sadarghat.
The bus and launch operators say that the rush would get worse in the coming days.
The traffic situation on some highways was pretty bad yesterday.
There were severe traffic jams on Dhaka-Tangail highway since Thursday night due to some breakdowns, mostly cattle-laden trucks.
Rush of cattle-laden trucks from different districts and their offloading at the roadside markets worsened the situation. Some drivers' crossing over to oncoming traffic lanes created more trouble. Like every year, the authorities loudly announced taking up concerted effort to ease people's sufferings. But their effort seemed to be inadequate. The highway police had to struggle to manage traffic and achieved little.
Long queues of vehicles were seen on both sides of the roads at places between Alenga in Tangail and Chandra in Gazipur and even up to Joydevpur Chourasta of Gazipur, reported our correspondents from Tangail and Gazipur.
In some areas, the tailbacks stretched for around 20 kilometres.
The jams began to ease slightly with vehicles moving slowly in the afternoon, said Omar Faruque, officerin-charge of Kaliakair Police Station. Numerous cattle-laden trucks heading for Dhaka and empty trucks leaving after offloading cattle largely contributed to the jams. Besides, the law enforcers blamed some drivers for not following traffic rules.
Saiful Islam, driver of a tobacco-laden truck which was stranded at Nagar Jalpai in Tangail Sadar upazila, said he started journey from Chittagong Wednesday morning but could manage to reach only Tangail. "I don't know how much time it will take to reach Bogra," he said.
Level crossing on the highway at Dherua area in Mirzapur is another major reason for the jam as the authorities had to stop traffic frequently for trains.
Sumon Ahmmed, said he started his journey on a newspaper-carrying bus
from Dhaka around 3:00am and reached Tangail at noon, even though it was a three-hour journey.
The employees of Roads and Highways Department in Tangail were seen repairing potholes at different places on the highway yesterday.
Communications Minister Obaidul Quader, however, blamed cattle carrying trucks for stopping at different places and creating jams.
Inaugurating a 10-lane Nabinagar intersection on Dhaka-Aricha highway, he said he had ordered to prevent the cattle-carrying trucks from stopping at any point on the highway, reports I INB.
On Dhaka-Chittagong Highway, hundreds of passengers faced untold suffering following the breakdown of a lorry on Meghna-
Gumti Bridge in Comilla at 9:30am yesterday, reports a correspondent in Comilla.
Police removed the vehicle from the highway around 12:30pm.
However, highway police said the incident disrupted traffic on the highway for about six hours, creating a 20-kilometre tailback from Eliatganj to Daudkandi toll plaza.
FERRYTERMINALS
Around 500 cattle-laden trucks heading for Dhaka got stranded at Daulatdia ferry terminal as officials at the terminal were giving priority to buses.
"We asked the cattle traders to move just after evening," Zillur Rahman, deputy general manager of BIWTC Aricha region said.
The situation at Mawa-Kawrakandi was, however, normal with a moderate rush in the morning.