BNP's road march snarls traffic in Dhaka

The BNP's second citywide road march under its 'one-point' campaign to oust the government slowed traffic to a crawl in parts of Dhaka.

Heavy traffic congestion formed in Uttara around Wednesday noon as BNP loyalists occupied the road from Tongi to Dhaka via the airport for several hours.

They launched a procession from Abdullahpur and were set to march all the way to Jatrabari via Kuril, Notun Bazar, Badda, Rampura, Khilgaon, Basabo and Sayedabad, reports bdnews24.com.

Photo: Focus Bangla

Traffic ground to a halt near the Bashundhara residential area when the marching activists made their way through Pragati Sarani around 2:30 pm.

Many commuters took to the popular Facebook page 'Traffic Alert' to advise people to avoid the road.

"Due to congestion, police started diverting traffic through Kamarpara in the morning. Many [bus operators] did not head out again after completing their morning runs for fear of getting stuck in traffic,” said Imran Hossain, the driver of an Airport Paribahan bus operating on the Uttara-Gulistan route.

But both lanes of the airport road were fully open as of 2:30 pm, according to Navid Kamal Shaibal, deputy commissioner of Dhaka North Traffic Division. "There was congestion for some time after the march began. We diverted vehicles in different directions to ease traffic."

“The tailback stretched all the way to Gazipur. But the road was completely clear shortly after the procession left.”