50km tailback grips Dhaka-Chattogram highway

A gruelling 50-kilometre tailback engulfed the Dhaka-Chattogram highway's Dhaka-bound lane between Chandina in Cumilla and the Asharia Char Bridge in Narayanganj, leaving thousands of passengers stranded from Friday afternoon until Saturday morning.

Highway police attributed the congestion to emergency repair works on a deteriorating pothole at the Asharia Char Bridge, which had widened alarmingly and posed an accident risk. With one of the two Dhaka-bound lanes closed since Friday, traffic in both directions was funnelled onto a single carriageway, and mounting volumes gradually overwhelmed capacity until the jam spread as far as Chandina. Drivers described gruelling ordeals: one transport operator reported being stranded since midnight, while another said he had been immobilised for roughly eight hours after covering the same stretch. Passengers marooned near the Meghna Toll Plaza, including those bound for international flights, voiced bewilderment at the prolonged delay, with many unaware of its underlying cause.

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Officers at the Daudkandi and Kanchpur highway police stations confirmed that the lane closure for urgent repairs was the principal driver of the disruption, adding that multiple highway police units remained deployed to manage the flow and restore normalcy.