After three days of relatively smooth travel, homebound passengers heading to northern districts faced severe delays on the Jamuna Bridge today, as a surge in vehicles and multiple breakdowns triggered a massive tailback.Amirul Islam, officer-in-charge of Jamuna Bridge West Police Station, said at least 15 vehicles broke down on the bridge between midnight and 10:00am.Combined with heavy Eid-ul-Fitr traffic, this led to a 25-kilometre congestion stretching from the eastern end of the bridge.To manage the situation, authorities introduced a one-way traffic system between 11:40am and 1:15pm, allowing two lanes of northbound vehicles to cross. The measure helped ease congestion significantly, he added.

Syed Riaz Uddin, executive engineer of the Jamuna Bridge Site office said the breakdowns had triggered the initial gridlock.

“We operated one-way traffic in phases to clear the backlog. Vehicles are now crossing more quickly, and traffic flow is expected to return to normal shortly,” he said.

The prolonged delays have left many passengers exhausted.Shakila Afroz, travelling from Gazipur to Pabna with her family, said they began their journey after sehri but had still not crossed the bridge by 2:00pm.

“We may only reach home by iftar,” she said.According to bridge authorities, a total of 51,584 vehicles crossed the bridge in the past 24 hours, generating a record Tk 34,311,900 in tolls. Of these, 32,840 vehicles travelled from the eastern side and 18,744 from the west.

The OC said wreckers are being deployed promptly to remove stalled vehicles. While the breakdowns caused temporary disruption, he added that the situation is stabilising and traffic movement is gradually returning to normal.