45km tailback on Dhaka-Tangail road

A 45km long tailback was created on the Dhaka-Tangail highway after a passenger bus collided with a truck on the road yesterday.
The tailback remained for eight hours creating untold sufferings to thousands of passengers.
Highway police sources said the head-on collision occurred at 4:30am on the highway in Madarjani area under Tangail Sadar upazila. The driver of the bus sustained minor injuries while passengers escaped mostly unharmed.
Though the two vehicles were removed using a wrecker at 8:00am; the traffic jam lasted till 2:00pm, they added.
The traffic jam was acute 45km from Bangabandhu Bridge to Pakulla in Tangail, passengers said.
Saiful Islam, a victim of the tailback and official of a private firm in Dhaka, said he started his journey at 6:00am from Mohakhali inter-district bus terminal to go to his village home at Bhuapur in Tangail.
“The journey usually takes about three hours,” said Saiful, adding that he arrived in Tangail about seven hours later.
A number of law enforcers struggled to ease the traffic jam on the two-lane highway that connects the capital with 23 north-western districts, said Kamruzzaman Raj, a sub-inspector of Elenga Highway Police Outpost in Tangail.