The long-awaited Moghbazar-Mouchak flyover apparently has turned out to be a disappointment for the commuters who sought a relief from traffic gridlock in the area.
Within a week of inauguration, commuters are facing gridlocks both on the flyover ramps and underneath in Rajarbagh, Shantinagar, Malibagh Chowdhury Para, Wireless Gate and Bangla Motor.
Until the opening of the ramps, the road stretching from Moghbazar to Bangla Motor witnessed heavy traffic immediately after office hours, but now the same situation prevails almost all day.
Rows of vehicles were found stranded for hours on the ramp connecting the two ends around 5pm Wednesday.
In their observations, locals have said the traffic prevalent at Malibagh, Mouchak, and Moghbazar is now flowing into Bangla Motor.
Autorickshaw driver Abdul Quaiyum complained of monstrous traffic. Ekram Ullah Bhuiyan, a resident of Goran, said he stopped using the flyover due to the gridlock.
The motor vehicles that frequently drop by the shops selling car parts in Bangla Motor worsen the traffic situation.
Vehicles from Bangla Motor and Tejgaon that take the flyover land into heavy traffic right after reaching Moghbazar Wireless.
Two giant garbage containers placed on the road make the road narrow and clog traffic.
Many vehicles using the flyover were seen turning back towards Holy Family Red Crescent Medical College Hospital on Monday evening only to avoid landing into traffic congestion at Wireless.
However, the move did not bring them much relief as the ramp along the hospital also ends into the gridlock at Bailey Road signal.
People taking the flyover from Rampura and Moghbazar are hit by the bad traffic right after landing at Rajarbagh signal.
Roadside shops and parked cars add to the woes. The buses make U-turns at the Greenline counter in Rajarbagh making the scene worse.
Kazi Mahmud, a banker, believes that the flyover is doing no good. “Previously it was Mouchak that remained abuzz with traffic. But now it has come all the way to Rajarbagh.”
“To go to my office in Bashabo, I start from my house in Mohammadpur and take the flyover from Bangla Motor or Tejgaon. But then I land into traffic jam at Wireless and then again at Rajarbagh.
“I get stuck at Eskaton along Bangla Motor while returning,” said Mahmud.
The story does not end here.
“If I ride over the flyover from Holy Family, then wherever I land, be it Hotel Sonargaon or Tejgaon, I get caught up in traffic. Before, I had to spend around half an hour at two or three signals. Now, I have to sit for 40 minutes at one place,” he continued.
The flyover does take one quickly from Bailey Road to Tejgaon but then the commuters sink into sickening traffic at Tibbat and Nabisco area. To reach Mohakhali, one spends at least an hour on this three-kilometre long road.
“We used to get stuck at Moghbazar and Malibagh before. Now all the vehicles cluster at Tejgaon,” said Shaheen Alam, helper of a Balaka Paribahan bus.
Heavy traffic was found on the road along Mouchak, Bangla Motor and Moghbazar on Tuesday afternoon.
Although commuters seem frustrated, Joint Commissioner (traffic) Md Mofiz Uddin Ahmed claims that the flyover has more benefits than disadvantages.
“More space can be found now on roads after the inaugural of the flyover. However, drivers may face some problems while riding over and getting down from it. This is inevitable,” he told bdnews24.com.
“We have deployed additional traffic police personnel to ease the situation and we have also designed a policy for that.”
Joint Commissioner Mofiz added that illegal structures will soon be evicted from pavements and roads.
“Every day we are filing cases against those who illegally park cars in front of shops at Bangla Motor. We are driving away the hawkers but things are getting back to square one again and again.
“We have told the city corporation that people may not get the benefits of this flyover if these hawkers are not evicted. Soon we will issue a letter to the city corporation,” said the officer.
