Rain, jam paralyse Dhaka city
Traffic disruption and public sufferings came after hours of seamless rainfall inundated roads across the capital
ATT Correspondent 
A four-kilometre journey from Shyamoli to Kakoli under Banani took four hours on Sunday morning as relentless monsoon rain triggered severe waterlogging and brought traffic to a near standstill on Dhaka’s busy airport corridor, exposing once again the capital’s vulnerability to heavy rainfall.
Journalists Anindya Arif and M Aminul Islam left Shyamoli by a CNG-run auto-rickshaw around 9:00am for Banani, a journey that normally takes 20-30 minutes. Instead, they reached their destination nearly four hours later after becoming trapped in a citywide traffic gridlock stretching towards the airport.
“It felt as though the entire city had stopped moving. We barely covered a few hundred metres every 20 to 30 minutes,” according to one Mousumi who commutes between Shyamoli and Uttara by bus.
The worst congestion was reported along the Mahakhali-Kakoli-Banani-Chairman Bari-Khilkhet-Airport corridor, where vehicles crawled through waterlogged sections of the road. Many passengers abandoned buses and walked to their destinations as traffic remained virtually immobile.
The disruption came after continuous overnight rainfall inundated roads across the capital. According to the Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD), Dhaka recorded 97mm of rainfall in the 24 hours until 6:00am on Sunday, with another 76mm falling between midnight and 6:00am, making it the heaviest six-hour rainfall recorded in the city this month. Forecasters warned that rain was likely to continue throughout the day.
Low-lying stretches near Mahakhali, Kakoli and several connecting roads accumulated rainwater, forcing vehicles to move slowly and creating long queues of buses, private cars, ride-sharing vehicles and motorcycles heading towards Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.
For many airport-bound passengers, the journey became highly unpredictable as travel times increased severalfold. Commuters said even short trips within the corridor took hours, raising concerns about passengers missing flights and disrupting business travel.
The downpour also submerged roads in many other parts of the capital, including Bijoy Sarani, Karwan Bazar, Dhanmondi, Mirpur, Motijheel and Mohammadpur, worsening traffic congestion on the first working day of the week.
Urban planners have long warned that inadequate drainage capacity, encroached canals and rapid urbanisation leave Dhaka highly susceptible to waterlogging during intense monsoon rainfall. Sunday’s disruption once again highlighted how a few hours of heavy rain can cripple access to one of the country’s busiest transport corridors and significantly affect commuters travelling to and from the capital’s international airport.
