With more people returning home as the Eid holiday approaches, the Bangabandhu expressway, an entry route from Dhaka to the southern regions of Bangladesh, experienced an increased vehicular movement compared to other times.
This extra pressure of vehicles has already caused an 8-km-long queue at the toll Plaza of Padma Bridge, said Inspector ASM Ziaul Haider of Mawa Traffic Police.
"The slowdown in the operation of the weighing scale machines used for trucks on the Padma bridge has caused traffic jams on the highway. As many vehicles gathered in the early morning, the congestion extended for 8 kilometres towards Chonbari, with vehicles moving slowly," said Ziaul.
The bridge authorities said vehicle pressure started increasing early Friday morning.
Due to the higher-than-usual vehicle pressure, vehicles at the Padma Bridge toll plaza are having to wait longer to pay the tolls, causing a slowdown in movement in the bridge area.
Witnesses said, starting from Mawa end of Munshiganj, the tailback went beyond Kamarkhola of
Sreenagar upazila this morning, causing immense sufferings to the homebound passengers.
Motorcycle booths were increased from one to two due to heavy traffic. Currently, there are seven toll booths working at the toll plaza to ease the traffic congestion.
The toll plaza authorities said that the Electronic Toll Collection System-ETC, which started on a trial basis 11 months ago for collecting tolls on moving vehicles, has not yet been fully operational.
The authorities said the cars were moving slowly due to the pressure of vehicles, but they were doing their best to keep traffic flowing.
