A crippling 40-kilometre traffic tailback along the vital Dhaka-Chittagong highway has left thousands of commuters stranded in searing heat, resulting in the tragic death of a cardiac patient trapped inside an ambulance. The massive congestion, stretching from Sonargaon in Narayanganj to Iliotganj in Comilla’s Daudkandi upazila, paralysed the Dhaka-bound lane for over 24 hours.
The chaos began on Friday at 8:00 AM when road maintenance work commenced on the Dhaka-bound lane in the Ashariarchar area of Sonargaon. The unexpected lane closures severely bottlenecked traffic on one of the country’s busiest commercial arteries. Reports confirmed that heavy tailbacks persisted into Saturday morning, trapping passenger buses, freight lorries, and emergency vehicles alike in gruelling gridlocks under intense summer temperatures.
The human cost of the disruption turned tragic for Amirunnesa, a resident of Pranbhagavatipur village in Lakshmipur’s Chandraganj upazila. According to her relative Tareq Al Hasan, Amirunnesa suffered a severe cardiac arrest on Friday evening. Family members immediately arranged an ambulance to transport her from Lakshmipur to specialised medical facilities in Dhaka around 8:00 PM.
By 11:00 PM, the ambulance reached Daudkandi in Comilla, where it ground to a complete halt within the colossal tailback. Trapped immobile for four agonizing hours without access to advanced medical care, the patient’s condition deteriorated rapidly. She passed away inside the vehicle at approximately 3:00 AM before the driver could navigate out of the gridlock.
Other travellers shared similar accounts of profound distress. Passengers aboard a long-distance Mujahid Paribahan bus travelling from Chittagong to Bagherhat reported becoming stuck near Iliotganj around 2:30 AM. It took their vehicle nearly six hours to crawl a mere ten kilometres to Amirabad by Saturday morning. Commercial drivers expressed deep frustration over the lack of traffic management during major road repairs on such a crucial national economic corridor, noting that elderly passengers, women, and infants suffered immensely while trapped in stifling bus cabins.
Law enforcement authorities acknowledged the severe pressures on the ground. Inspector Mohammad Shamim, in charge of the Bhaberchar Highway Police Outpost in Munshiganj, confirmed that the emergency roadwork initiated on Friday morning triggered the cascading congestion. He stated that highway police personnel were deployed along the route to manage stranded vehicles and assist distressed travellers amidst the challenging conditions, though clearing the massive backlog remained a slow process.
