Dhaka experiences heavy traffic congestions as lockdown ends

The capital Dhaka has regained its real looks as city dwellers on Wednesday (August 11) took streets after a long lockdown that had been enforced to prevent the coronavirus infection.

Thousands of people went out of home in the morning for their working places. Many of them fell in immense suffering due to public transports shortage. 

Many of the people were seen to go to their offices or workplace by auto-rickshaws, rickshaws paying double fare. Although different roads of the city experiences heavy traffic congestions, there was not enough public transports.

The scenario was found in the capital’s New Market, Shahbag, Bangla Motor, Farmgate, Mohakhali on Wednesday from morning till noon.

One Aminul could not get on the bus even after waiting for more than an hour to go to his buying house office of Mohakhali DOHS. He resides at Hatirpool in the capital. Another person Moniruzzaman who would go to to Uttara. But he also could not get on the bus after waiting for a long time.

Though there were buses on roads, all of them left the very first stoppage with full of passengers. No bus was seen to stop in the midst of their way as there are restrictions on picking up passengers. The suffering of the passengers has reached its peak as there are half number of public transports on the roads and restrictions on taking standing passengers.

Several passengers were found standing on the street in heat in front of the Farmgate Ananda Cinema Hall to go to their workplaces. They were waiting for transports of Mirpur, Mohakhali and Uttara. Whenever a bus was seen coming towards them, everyone was running towards it, but failing to get up. Because, all the buses were filled with passengers.

After the end of the lockdown after 19 days, the pressure of private cars, microbuses, auto-rickshaws and rickshaws has been high on roads since the morning. Half of the public transports is running with passengers as many seats they have. The traffic police on duty are struggling to handle the transports.

Rafiqul Islam, a traffic sergeant in charge of Shahbagh area, said, “There has been a lot of traffic on roads since the morning. Today, after 19 days, the lockdown has been lifted. As a result, all types of vehicles have come out on roads. Those of us who are in charge of traffic on the road do not have a chance to rest even for a minute. Even in the rain and sun, everyone is doing their duty continuously.

Noor Nabi, Assistant Commissioner of Ramna Zone, said, “You can see the condition of the road. Lots of cars are running. Our people are having impossible hardships to deal with them. Everyone is working continuously even in the sun and rain. We are all trying to maintain order in the streets despite our own hardships.”