Vehicles were moving slowly through the alternative Brahmanbaria-Moinamati highway after a four-day repair work of two key bridges on Dhaka-Chittagong highway began early yesterday.
A long queue of vehicles plying the Dhaka-Chittagong highway clogged the diversion route as their speed came down to 30 to 50 kilometres per hour.
Hundreds of people suffered heavily as their vehicles remained stuck on the road for hours while police were grappling with heavy traffic in a bid to ease commuters' sufferings.
Md Jahidul Islam, additional police super of Brahmanbaria, held the insufficient width of Brahmanbaria-Moinamati highway accountable for slow pace of vehicles.
The detour for the Dhaka-Chittagong traffic was Dhaka-Bhairab-Brahmanbaria-Moinamati-Chittagong.
Meanwhile, the authorities began the repair work on Meghna bridge at 6:00 am. But they could not start the work on Meghna-Gumti (Daudkandi) bridge due to a long tailback on both sides of the bridge.
Major Jahid, an official of the bridge repair project, said the work at Meghna-Gumti bridge could not be started due to traffic gridlock, reports UNB.
Police were trying to remove the tailback since yesterday morning to begin the repair work on the bridge soon.
To control movement of long-distance vehicles through Brahmanbaria, several teams of law enforcers had been working round-the-clock, the police super said.
Three tow-trucks were kept on standby to haul away broken down vehicles from the highway, reports our Brahmanbaria correspondent.
Around 400 law enforcers have been deployed to maintain discipline in vehicular movement on the alternative routes, sources at the police said.
Source:The Daily Star
