When the Gulistan-Jatrabari flyover opened in October 2013, Dhaka residents hailed it as a game-changer. The 11.7-kilometre stretch, built under a public-private partnership, was designed to free commuters from the suffocating gridlock that had long defined this busy corridor, linking the capital with the southern regions of the country.
More than a decade later, that promise has soured. What was supposed to be a symbol of modern infrastructure has instead become a daily ordeal for thousands.
From the first light of dawn until well past midnight, the flyover and its surrounding roads remain clogged with vehicles – sometimes so jammed that drivers and passengers spend two to three hours covering a distance meant to take just 10 minutes.
Truck driver Abdul Kader said because there is no space beneath the flyover, many buses are forced to stop their vehicles on the flyover to pick up and drop off passengers. “We’re stuck in the jam anyway. There is a service road, but it has long been occupied,” he added.
The frustration stems largely from poor design and mismanagement. The toll plaza, intended to regulate flow, has instead become a choke point. Compounding the problem are the narrow streets beneath the flyover. As a result, vehicles pile up on the flyover, creating long queues that ripple back into the city.
The impact is particularly harsh on inter-district buses and trucks, many of which get stranded for hours before they can even leave the city.
According to data from Orion Infrastructure Ltd, the operator of the flyover, more than 65,000 vehicles have been using it daily over the past few months. Before July last year, however, the average was around 50,000 to 52,000 vehicles a day.
Experts argue that the flyover was meant to function as a toll-free business corridor, but poor planning doomed it from the start.
“A flyover without a proper ring road forces one-way movement. Without systemic connectivity, an expensive infrastructure like this can never deliver the expected benefits,” Md Shamsul Hoque, professor of civil engineering at BUET, told TIMES of Bangladesh.
“Building a massive structure alone is not enough. There must be coordination with the roads below, the service lanes, and the traffic management system. Otherwise, instead of solving problems, it creates new complications,” added Professor Hoque.
The flyover, with its 13 ramps – six for entry and seven for exit – and four lanes of traffic, was built to link Gulistan with Sayedabad, Shanir Akhra and Postogola.
For many Dhaka residents, the flyover has become less a path to efficiency and more a monument to the city’s chronic traffic mismanagement.
Shafqat Islam, a commuter travelling from Malibagh to Jatrabari, said, “Sometimes it takes half an hour to an hour to cross the flyover. Yet, if I take the regular roads, I often reach faster. The very benefit for which this toll-based flyover was built is something we never get to enjoy.”
Why is the flyover always jammed?
Drivers and commuters point to a host of reasons behind the chronic congestion on the Gulistan-Jatrabari flyover. Potholes on connecting roads, buses and minibuses stopping at the flyover’s entrance to pick and drop off passengers, pedestrians waiting and walking on the flyover itself, long queues at the toll plaza, and the haphazard movement of buses.
The list doesn’t end there. Illegal shops and parking, rampant violations of traffic rules, a shortage of traffic police, vehicles driving against the flow, narrow roads beneath the flyover, and the presence of battery-run rickshaws all make things worse.
Every day, thousands of Dhaka-bound vehicles enter the flyover through four key points – Shanir Akhra, Demra, Sayedabad, and Dholaipar.
Long-distance buses and private vehicles from Narayanganj, Munshiganj, and Chattogram districts funnel into the flyover through Shanir Akhra. Transport from Sylhet and other northeastern districts enters through the Demra toll plaza, while buses from Barishal, Khulna, and the southwest use the Dholaipar point.
But the problem is not how many enter – it’s how few can exit. Drivers say while more than 100 vehicles per minute stream onto the flyover during peak hours, less than half manage to leave.
The situation is particularly dire on the Dhaka-bound side, where traffic collapses near the flyover’s two main exit points – Gulistan and Chankharpul.
At the Dhaka Medical end, the picture is even more dismal. Long tailbacks are a daily affair. Pedestrians complain that police frequently hold up flyover traffic for extended periods to give priority to vehicles heading into Old Dhaka.
Commuter buses on the Jatrabari-Gulistan route often stop four to five times along the flyover to pick up passengers, leaving those who disembark to cross the busy lanes at great personal risk. “People are standing there, so we have to take them,” admitted Kamal Mia, a bus helper. “Some passengers even insist on getting off in the middle of the flyover.”
“Getting on a bus at night from Jatrabari is the hardest,” said long-distance passenger Sabina Akter. “Buses crowd around the counters, trucks and vans park everywhere, and it’s even difficult for pedestrians to move through.”
Traffic police say they are aware of the situation but struggle to keep it under control. “Drivers cannot pick up or drop off passengers randomly on the Hanif Flyover. If they do, we take legal action,” a senior Dhaka Metropolitan Traffic Division official told TIMES of Bangladesh.
Professor Md Shamsul Hoque pointed out that the flyover was poorly designed in ways rarely seen elsewhere. “Here, people move across the flyover randomly, even staircases have been installed on it – something unheard of in the world.”
“The structure also consumes far more space both above and below than necessary. In other countries, flyovers take up no more than a metre beyond the carriageway. But here, the road underneath has been rendered almost unusable,” he added.
Motorcyclists also face hazards. “Often I have to brake hard in the middle of the flyover to avoid pedestrians,” said Shahadat Hossain, a Jatrabari resident who uses the road daily. “Major accidents happen here all the time.”
According to data from Buet’s ARI, once drivers manage to get past the congestion and onto the Gulistan-Jatrabari flyover, they immediately speed up – without any monitoring or speed control in place. Vehicles often attempt to overtake one another on the narrow stretch.
Moreover, because vehicles can enter from the Gulistan ramp and exit through Sayedabad, drivers frequently switch from left to right lanes and vice versa, creating additional risks.