Traffic jam shatters dreams of hundreds of RU admission seekers

Like hundreds of other contestants, Antara Shimu was on her way to Rajshahi from Dhaka yesterday morning to sit for the admission tests of Rajshahi University today.

She wanted to study in the Social Science faculty of the university.

But all her hopes were shattered as Shimu could not even have the chance to sit for the test. She could not reach Rajshahi in time as the mere five-hour long journey took over 20 hours to complete.

“Those hours of the journey were the most terrible time in my life,” Shimu told The Daily Star.

And the reason for this is no other than the notorious traffic congestion and tailback on the highways, in this case on the Dhaka-Rajshahi highway.

Starting from her home in Dhaka at 9:00 am on Saturday, Shimu reached Rajshahi at 12:30 pm on Sunday. Her bus started with a six hours’ delay and was yet to cross the Bangabandhu Multipurpose Bridge at 8:30 am on Sunday when her admission test was scheduled to be held.

“My anxiety began in the morning when I saw our coach was yet to make its way through jam at 7:00 am. I felt helpless,” she said.

By the time she reached Rajshahi, the test for Social Science faculty was over and she had to console herself by taking the admission test for Arts faculty of the university which took place at 2:30 pm.

At least Shimu was luckier than many other students who failed to sit for any of the tests as they were stuck in the traffic congestion on Dhaka-Rajshahi highway.

Nuraiya Islam, another admission seeker, told The Daily Star over the phone that she, along with 36 other applicants in a coach, was stranded on the highway at 12:00 pm today.

Each of the coaches stranded around theirs was carrying two or more admission seekers, she added.

Many applicants and their relatives said they suffered for 17 hours or more of their journey on Dhaka-Rajshahi route. Many students took broken routes through Nagarbari ferry ghat, but it also took ten hours to reach Rajshahi.

Transport managers in Rajshahi said the traffic jam occurred in different parts of Gazipur and Tangail due to road construction works, bad shape of roads, waterlogging and an increased number of vehicles.

Manjur Rahman, Rajshahi regional manager of Hanif Enterprise, said they increased a number of coaches from 30 to 60 on the occasion of RU admission tests like other coach services.

The number further increased as Paturia ferry ghat was closed for bad weather conditions and the coaches of the route were using Bangabandhu bridge to cross Jamuna river, he said.

Many university teachers and locals blamed Rajshahi University authority for negligence in coordinating with railway authorities for dealing with an influx of 1.21 lakh admission seekers in the city during the five days of admission tests beginning today.

They said the traffic jams on the highway was presumable as it was occurring over a year on occasions.

Md Khairul Alam, west zonal general manager of Bangladesh Railway, said the university authority wanted a special train through a phone call only two days before the beginning of admission tests. But the process needs time to get necessary approval of Railway Ministry.

He informed they “deliberately” arranged two to four additional coaches with almost all intercity trains to Rajshahi for the students’ convenience.

RU Pro Vice Chancellor Professor Ananda Kumar Saha said that conducting admission tests was not the responsibility of the university alone.

“Every year the city sees an influx of students and different authorities extend cooperation. It’s a normal practice,” he said.

When asked whether the RU authority held any coordination meeting with different authorities as they did in the past, he said they did with the police only.