Due to the expressway, it takes only 45 to 50 minutes to travel 60 kilometers from Dhaka to Faridpur Bhanga, while there the speed of vehicles on the Dhaka-Chattogram highway, which is the backbone of the country's economy and directly connects the port city of Chattogram with the industrial cities of Dhaka, Narayanganj and Gazipur, is hovering around 20 kilometers per hour.

In many places of the highway it takes more than an hour to cover 1 km. Along with the suffering of the passengers, the import-export activities through the Chattogram port are being disrupted.

Statistics said that 90 per cent of foreign trade depends on this highway because of Chattogram port. 50 per cent of Bangladesh's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) revolves around the economic activities of the capital Dhaka and Chattogram, known as the commercial capital.

New economic zones are being developed on both sides of the highway. Matarbari deep sea port, bay-terminal, Bangabandhu industrial city, transit-transshipment of neighboring countries will further increase the pressure on this road.

During the 2006-16 expansion of the highway from two to four lanes, the traffic growth in the design manual was estimated at 8 per cent, but the traffic growth on the highway has been more than 10 per cent since its opening.

Also, the equivalent single axle load (ESAL) of the highway was calculated at 133 million at the time of design, which exceeded 177 million. More than 10,000 trucks travel on this road per day.

Due to increased traffic pressure and various obstacles on the road, it currently takes 10 to 15 hours to cover the 232 km distance from Dhaka's Jatrabari to Chattogram City Gate.

Users of the highway said that there is less traffic on the road on Saturdays and Sundays. Trafic starts to increase from Monday. This highway comes to a complete standstill on Thursday. It often takes three to four hours to cross the Madanpur intersection of Narayanganj after leaving Dhaka.

There are 27 markets on both sides of the 256 km highway from Dhaka to Chattogram. Out of these 10 markets cause severe traffic jams. People from surrounding districts also flock to supply and buy products from the wholesale markets beside highway. Due to the traffic of trucks, vans, rickshaws and people on the highway in the market area, the speed of vehicles drops to 5-10 km per hour. That pressure fell on the whole road.

Over half a hundred U-turns across the highway are stopping vehicles even while turning. Accidents also happen. There is no Uloop, overpass or underpass at the junctions of three or four roads causing traffic jams.

The longest traffic congestion was found in Madanpur Junction, Sonargaon Junction, Gouripur Bazar, Elliotganj Bazar, Madhaiya Bazar, Chandina Bus Stand, Nimsar Bazar, Paduar Bazar, Chauddagram Bus Stand, Sitakunda, Mirsrai, Bariyarhat, Bhatiari, Barbakunda areas of the highway.

As there are no bus bays at the bus stands, many local vehicles have been seen blocking the roads like Dhaka to pick up passengers. Due to lack of automation, there were long queues of vehicles at the toll plazas of Meghna and Gomti Bridge. All the toll booths were not operational. Manually inputting each vehicle number into the computer was taking one-and-a-half minutes to give the receipt after the transaction.

Toll plaza manager SM Jamil told Bangladesh Pratidin, “Inputting numbers manually takes a bit more time. Apart from this, there is the problem of extortion money. This requires automation. However, ETC (Electronic Toll Collection) is running in one of their booths. One can pay money online if he has an account.”

“But car owners or drivers do not. Apart from this, RFID readers are installed in three booths. If a vehicle is fitted with a BRTA RFID tag, the number no longer needs to be entered manually. But most cars don't have this tag or it's unclear,” he added.

Places that causes of traffic congestion:

Chattogram Road: Dhaka- Chattogram main road has four lanes. Due to the bus stop, Chattogram Road Station has been converted from three lanes to six lanes on both sides. But all the lanes are occupied by buses. Due to this, traffic jams are created most of the time.

Madanpur: There are connecting roads on both sides of Madanpur bus stop on Dhaka- Chattogram highway. One road to Narayanganj port, the other one goes through Araihajar, Bhulta, Gauchia, Gazipur, 300 feet expressway to Dhaka. Hundreds of trucks and buses ply the port road.

As there is no interchange, overpass or U-loop, both sides of the Dhaka- Chattogram highway are closed when trucks and buses from the port enter the Dhaka- Chattogram road or travel towards Araihajar. On the other hand, when the main road is opened, the traffic of those two roads is stopped. The closed roads caused several kilometers of traffic jams.

Apart from this, CNG-powered auto-rickshaws and battery-powered rickshaws along with microbuses and city buses stand at the beginning of the two connecting roads. As a result the intersection has become the curse of the highway.

Sonargaon: Traffic jam continues in Mograpara of Sonargaon area of ​​Narayanganj. Traffic congestion is mainly due to parking of buses on the road and pick-up and drop-off of passengers.

Apart from this, there is a vegetable market next to the main road. People cross the road because of the market. In addition to accidents, the speed of vehicles decreases.

Bhaberchar (Gazaria): Bhaberchar area of ​​Gazaria on this highway creates traffic jams due to parking of Bazar, U-turn and local buses.

Gouripur: The Dhaka-Chattogram four-lane highway has bifurcated at Gouripur in Daudkandi. Because there is a market and a mosque between the two roads, people from both sides travel through the highway.

Apart from this, there is a connecting road of Cumilla's Homna Upazila with one side lane of the highway, and a connecting road of Chandpur with the other side lane. Passenger vehicles on the two connecting roads occupy the highway.

There are hundreds of shops along the two main roads including fruit shops, confectionery stores. Due to these reasons, traffic occurs. Many buses from Chandpur, Lakshmipur also come and go to Dhaka via Gouripur.

Madhaiya: At a place called Madhaiya in Cumilla, there is a temporary vegetable market on both sides of the highway. Buyers and sellers all use the main road. At the same time, people on both sides of the road are crossing at risk. Apart from this, three-wheelers including microbuses, CNG-powered auto-rickshaws are standing on the road.

Chandina: One of the reasons for the traffic jam in the Chandina area of ​​the highway is hundreds of fruit shops, sweet shops, bakeries and temporary vegetables markets on both sides of the road.

Dhaka-bound buses from Cumilla stop here for a long time to pick up passengers, causing traffic jams. At the same time, two connecting roads are connected on both sides of this highway. Vehicles on these two roads also create traffic jams on the main road.

Chauddagram: Traffic jam occurs at Suagazi Bazar on the highway. There is a permanent market along with vegetable market at this place. Miyabazar is a little further along this road. There is also a permanent market there. If you go a little further, Chauddagram market. Due to these three markets, terrible traffic jams occurs in the highway.

Considering the importance of the highway, the Dhaka-Chattogram highway was increased from two lanes to four lanes during the period 2006-2016. The cost is 3 thousand 816 crore 94 lakh taka. But the crisis is not over. In 2013, it was decided to make this highway an expressway on the basis of public-private partnership (PPP).

The project was canceled in October last year under PPP mode. The government has planned to make the currently four-lane highway 10 lanes with separate lanes for local vehicles.

A B M Amin Ullah Nuri, Secretary Road Transport and Highways Division told Bangladesh Pratidin, “Four lanes out of 10 lanes will be dedicated for Dhaka-Chittagong traffic. Apart from this, many overpasses, underpasses, and loops will be constructed.”

Prof Md Shamsul Hoque, a transport expert from the civil engineering department of Buet told Bangladesh Pratidin, “Without the expressway, the Dhaka-Chattogram highway will not be profitable even with 10 lanes. There will be traffic jams at every turn. We need expressways, where there are no barriers. No vehicles or people can enter. The car will run at own speed.”

“Dhaka-Chattogram highway is the backbone of the economy. This highway should be converted into an expressway. No matter how wide you make the road, people and traffic will encroach. Just increasing the lane will be a suicidal case.”

“In other countries, the roads known as the backbone are expressways. Simultaneously Dhaka-Mawa Expressway has been constructed. People are not able to enter there, there is no traffic jam. Why are we not learning from it? In 2015, there was an opportunity to make this highway an expressway,” he said.

“For this, infrastructure such as flyovers and interchanges should have been built at both sides of the service lane and congested junctions or market areas. The cost was not too high. It was not due to the indifference of the officials at that time,” Prof Md Shamsul Hoque added.

@ The article was published on print and online versions of The Bangladesh Pratidin on February 22, 2023 and has been rewritten in English by Tanvir Raihan.