By Mizan Rahman
Dhaka
Thousands of people yesterday were forced to make their way through flooded streets as unusually heavy rains led to a virtual chaos in Dhaka city with stranded vehicles causing an unprecedented traffic jam in the capital.
The residents of the capital, which has already earned a bad image for its notorious traffic congestion, witnessed a pleasant morning with light clouds on the skyline but the sky soon turned dark and heavy showers followed, exposing them to the worst suffering in recent years.
Witnesses and residents said the heavy downpour during mid-day worsened the situation, halting vehicles including buses on the flooded streets and forcing people to walk.
“The school bus was supposed to reach my home at 2pm but until 7pm in the evening, the bus could not reach,” the anxious father of a minor boy said from his workplace while his working mother also could not make her way through clogged roads to the bus , to collect their child.
He said the bus driver was forced to try different routes other than the usual one to reach the children at their respective homes, avoiding clogged waters on the streets but the helpless and tired kids were forced to remain seated in the vehicle hungry for hours.
Another professional, who lives in Uttara said it took him for over four hours to reach his workplace in Motijheel, with him having to cross much of his route on foot because of the water and traffic congestion.
“In the morning it was a cloudy and soothing weather but it eventually turned out to be a nightmare for me in broad daylight,” he said. The man, in his late 40s, said in a futile attempt to avoid the excessive traffic jam on the Airport-Motijheel route due to rains, he preferred to drive through the Mirpur Beribandh road, but had to eventually leave the car and walk for miles on the flooded Mirpur Road to reach his workplace barefooted, with shoes in his hand.
Dozens of vehicles remained stranded with their engines stopping because of the water while thousands were seen strolling in waist deep deluge at places.
Potholes on the city streets were another nightmare as many of the cars, motorbikes and auto-rickshaws and rickshaws were seen overturned as the deluge hid the holes from the sight of the drivers.
According to police’s traffic control department, water logging was reported from several parts of the city, including Shantinagar, Mouchak, Shahbag, Farmgate, and Banani.
