A 70-km tailback was created on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway on Friday after a truck overturned and another broke down at different points in Comilla. Mashiur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Mynamati highway police station, said a truck turned turtle on the highway in Chandia upazila around 2am while another went out of order at the Cantonment point at about 12:30am, blocking the highway. Following the two incidents, a 70-km tailback was created from Paduar Bazar Bishwa Road of Comilla to Bhaterchar of Gazaria upazila of Munshiganj, inflicting immense sufferings on the passengers. Though the trucks were removed hours later, the gridlock was yet to ease on the highway due to heavy pressure of traffic after the end of the six-day opposition-sponsored road-rail-waterway blockade programme. Dense fog also worsened the situation. Large numbers of vehicles took to the streets on Friday as the BNP-led 18-party alliance is set to enforce another countrywide blockade at 6am Saturday. Hundreds of vehicles, including, buses and trucks, remained stranded in long queues on the highway as of filing this report at about 7:30pm. – UNB
