There are designated bus stops on the expressway, yet buses pick up and drop passengers elsewhere. There are at least eight such 'bus stops' between Jazeera and Bhanga. On Wednesday, buses were seen loading and unloading passengers in Ramanakanda, Surjanagar, Pachhar and Naodoba areas. Buses stopped for 5-10 minutes in Pachhar Circle and Bhanga toll plaza areas. Many long distance buses also have temporary ticket counters at these locations. Additionally, trucks and microbuses were also seen parked on the highway.
Most of the victims of road accidents on the expressway were pedestrians. Most of the pedestrians do not use foot overbridges and cross the highway by walking or running, risking their lives.
Vehicles on expressways have to obey certain speed limits. Nevertheless, drivers reportedly violate the speed limit on the expressway.
“The speed of our bus fluctuates around 100 km per hour,” said Solaiman Mia, driver of the Shyamoli Paribahan bus. Speed is not an issue here. If haphazard parking and haphazard picking up and dropping of passengers continues, the risk of an accident increases.
Highway Police Madaripur Zone Superintendent Shaheenur Alam Khan told Prothom Alo, “We could not implement the recommendation to install speed control cameras on the expressway. Such a pilot project is going on in Chattogram. Based on the success of that pilot project, cameras will be installed here.”
