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City life came to a standstill on Thursday as torrential rain coupled with political protests in places caused severe traffic gridlock throughout the capital. People from all walks of life--- office-goers, students, day labourers and others— were left in the lurch amid what many described as a "disastrous traffic situation."
According to the Traffic Division, the heavy morning rainfall led to waterlogging on many of the city's roads. The Met Office recorded a 22 millimetre rainfall on the day.
Besides, political demonstrations blocked some major routes, resulting in extremely slow vehicular movement.
Severe traffic jams developed at the major intersections like Bijoy Sarani, Khamarbari, Aarong Mor, Dhanmondi 27, and Science Lab.
Vehicles remained stuck for long time at every traffic signal, and the routes that usually take average 10 minutes took more than an hour to cross.
On the eighth day of the ongoing protest by BNP and its different wings for taking-oath by BNP leader Ishraque Hossain as the south Dhaka city mayor, supporters blocked roads in areas like Matsya Bhaban, Kakrail, the High Court, and Ramna since morning.
This caused extreme difficulties for the people trying to get to offices, schools and colleges.
Hundreds of private cars, buses, CNG-run auto-rickshaws, motorcycles, and rickshaws remained stranded on the roads.
Shafikur Rahman, a resident of Basila, reached his office at Motijheel at 11:30am on the day.
"I left home at 8:30am, reached Elephant Road at 10am and Motijheel at 11:30, where I usually reach at 9:30-9:45am," he said.
Bus driver Fazal Ali in the Purana Paltan area on Thursday afternoon told the FE that he left Tongi for Gulistan at 12:00 pm.
"I reached Farmgate by 2:00 pm. It took me another two and half an hours to reach Paltan," he said.
A few rickshaws and small vehicles were seen using nearby streets, but they were forced to move extremely slowly.
Emergency vehicles, including ambulances, were granted priority passage.
Sheikh Moinuddin, the Chief Adviser's special assistant on road transport, told the FE amid the entire situation the interim government is trying to resolve the problems using its capacity.
"We are working on introducing apps like Google Map to help city commuters follow trip plans to avoid gridlocked streets," he said.
"The apps or website at least will help those commuters who are now stuck due to lack of knowledge," he told the FE over phone.
Sufian Ahmed, Dhaka Metropolitan Police's joint commissioner (Traffic-North), said that Thursday saw more severe traffic congestions compared to Wednesday.
Meanwhile, severe traffic congestions on roads led to overwhelming pressure on the Metrorail.
Commuters had to wait 30 to 40 minutes to board, as the queues were exceptionally long.
smunima@yahoo.com