Despite major progress in expanding the Dhaka-Rangpur national highway into a four-lane one, the unresolved bottleneck on the Jamuna Bridge remains a key concern for smooth journey to northern, north-western and southern districts, particularly during Eid.
Although the government has approved an international tender for widening the bridge’s upper deck, construction work is yet to begin, raising fears of renewed traffic congestion during the holiday rush as Eid-ul-Azha approaches.
Transport officials say that the problem stems from the bridge that forces vehicles travelling on the four-lane Elenga-Nalka-Hatikumrul national highway to pass through its two-lane section, creating severe pressure at both ends of the crossing.
During last Eid-ul-Fitr, reckless overtaking and heavy traffic on the bridge triggered more than 100 minor and major accidents, causing hours-long congestion and serious disruption to transport services across northern Bangladesh.
This year, the situation may further worsen with the addition of thousands of cattle-laden trucks travelling from the northern districts before Eid, transport operators and passengers said.
Authorities, however, say that the newly built Hatikumrul Interchange in Sirajganj is expected to bring significant relief to travellers despite the bottlenecks at both ends of the bridge.
Constructed under the South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC-2) Road Connectivity Project with support from the government and the Asian Development Bank, the international-standard cloverleaf interchange is set to open a new ramp on May 20.
Earlier, the first of the interchange’s total eight ramps was opened to the public.
The ramp to be opened on May 20 will allow vehicles travelling from Dhaka towards Bogura and other northern districts to move without traffic signals or crossings, according to the project officials.
‘Hatikumrul is no longer a congestion point. There was no major traffic jam here during the last Eid (Eid-ul-Fitr) either,’ said Mahbubur Rahman, additional project director and executive engineer of the project.
‘Once the new ramp opens, buses and trucks on their return after offloading cattle heading north will be able to move directly towards their destinations without interruption,’ he added.
Officials involved in the highway expansion project, however, said that the benefits of the four-lane highway would remain limited unless the Jamuna Bridge was expanded.
Passengers and transport workers have blamed particularly the delays in removing broken-down vehicles and poor traffic discipline on the bridge, lingering the traffic congestion.
‘The highway has improved a lot, but the suffering near the bridge during the last Eid still worries us,’ said Mosharraf Hossain, a bank official travelling to Nilphamari.
‘We had to sit for hours in extreme heat because of the traffic jam,’ he added.
Bangladesh Bridge Authority officials, however, said that preparations had been taken to better manage the Eid-ul-Azha traffic.
Syed Riaz Uddin, executive engineer of the Jamuna Bridge maintenance division, said that coordination meetings had already been held with the district administration of Tangail and Sirajganj, additional workforces would be deployed and the Bhuyapur alternative route would remain active to reduce the traffic pressure.
