A rush of vehicles carrying people back to Dhaka after Eid-ul-Fitr has created a 10 km-long traffic gridlock at the Daulatdia ferry terminal.
The tailback, stretching from Zero Point at the ferry terminal to the Jaminder Bridge area on the Dhaka-Khulna highway on Saturday morning, was causing immense suffering to travellers, some of whom have been waiting since Friday night to cross the river, reports bdnews24.com.
Prafulla Chouhan, manager of the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) river port at Daulatdia, confirmed that they were at full capacity and had been operating as many as 21 ferries on the route.
Around 8:30 am, about 2,000 vehicles, including passenger buses, freight trucks, cars, microbuses and motorcycles, were waiting to board ferries.
The heatwave and the long waiting time have made things more difficult for passengers, as well as the drivers and their staff.
Ruma Akhter, a passenger on the Eagle Paribahan coach service, came from Satkhira.
“I have been stuck here since 12 last night. The only thing I have eaten since then are two slices of bread. I couldn’t sleep at all as my baby was having trouble falling asleep because of the excessive heat,” she said at around 11 am.
Echoing Ruma’s woes, another passenger in the same coach named Sabina Yesmin said the lack of lavatory facilities had added insult to their injuries.
Another Dhaka-bound passenger, Shafiqul Islam, who came from Jashore on the Golden Line coach service, was worried that he might be reprimanded for missing the first day back at work due to the traffic.
“My two-year-old daughter is already sick because of the heat,” he said.
Aslam Hossain, a driver for the Patura Paribahan coach service, said he had been stuck with a bus full of passengers from Satkhira for the last 10 hours.
“I don’t have words to describe the suffering,” he said.
On duty traffic sergeant Shahid, identified by his first name, admitted that there is an immense rush of vehicles at the port.
He, however, said traffic police are working in coordination with BIWTC authorities to ease the situation as soon as possible.
Usually, 19 ferryboats operate on the Paturia-Daulatdia water route, but BIWTC had added two more ferryboats to ease suffering during Eid travels.
When asked if the BIWTC would add more to the water route, manager Prafulla Chouhan said they had no plans to do so at the moment.