Abdur Rahman ; Feni — A treacherous 27-kilometer stretch of the Dhaka-Chittagong highway—historically revered as the economic lifeline of Bangladesh—has devolved into a hazardous corridor of potholes and frequent accidents.
Torrential rains have stripped away extensive layers of asphalt, leaving waterlogged craters that expose thousands of commuters to daily life-threatening risks.
While the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) maintains that repair work is underway, the highway’s critical condition tells a far more grim story.
A spot inspection on Saturday, July 18, revealed a landscape heavily fractured by craters extending from Feni’s New Samiti Bazar to Muhuriganj, Kaska to Lemuya Bridge, and from Lemuya Bridge to Lalpol.
The waterlogged potholes have severely blinded drivers, with operators of small vehicles, private cars, microbuses, and motorcycles facing the highest risk of accidents.
In desperate bids to avoid these craters, drivers frequently veer into oncoming lanes, drastically escalating the risk of high-speed collisions.
Although the RHD has deployed emergency brick and carpeting repairs across sections from Muhuri Bridge to Kaska, the uneven, unlevel surfaces have ironically compounded the driving hazards.
Economic Strain and Rising Casualties
The severely damaged road infrastructure has forced freight and passenger traffic to slow down to a crawl, triggering prolonged traffic gridlocks.
Transport operators note that the delays are driving up fuel consumption and causing severe damage to vehicle components.
The absolute brunt of this crisis is being borne by long-distance commuters, women, children, and emergency medical ambulances.
According to Highway Police statistics, at least 37 individuals—including men, women, and children—have lost their lives on the Feni section of the highway between January and July 2026 alone.
Law enforcement has filed 35 formal cases relating to these fatal accidents over the last seven months, though independent sources indicate the actual death toll may be higher.
Data from the Fazilpur Highway Police jurisdiction shows 11 accident cases, resulting in 9 deaths and 7 injuries.
Meanwhile, the Mahipal Highway Police jurisdiction recorded a staggering 24 cases, with 28 lives lost during the same seven-month window.
Expert Analysis and Institutional Blowback
Public safety advocates point out that structural issues are being exacerbated by behavioral and regulatory shortcomings.
“A lack of structured education, proper training, and professional skills among drivers is directly accelerating the accident rate. Furthermore, the persistent operation of fitness-compromised vehicles and severely overloaded trucks is actively destroying the highway infrastructure.”
— Asaduzzaman Dara, Former General Secretary of the Nirapad Sarak Chai (We Demand Safe Roads) Feni District Committee.
Highway officials have identified excessive speeding, a lack of dedicated service lanes, and driver fatigue as the primary catalysts for the ongoing bloodshed.
“Reckless driving speeds and the complete absence of service lanes are the root causes behind these statistics,” stated Shahidul Islam, In-charge of the Fazilpur Highway Police Station. “A dedicated service lane would allow smaller, slower vehicles to move safely without cross-contaminating high-speed freight lanes”.
Echoing these concerns, Mahipal Highway Police Inspector Md. Asadul Islam observed that many commercial drivers operate long past their physical limits, falling asleep at the wheel.
He noted, however, that points of concern reported by his team to the RHD were quickly patched, slightly mitigating the risks in specific spots.
RHD Promises a Rapid but Temporary Fix
The sub-par durability of the road surfaces remains a point of deep contention among local drivers, who complain that the Dhaka-bound lanes disintegrate every monsoon season without any permanent engineering solution being implemented.
Defending the state response, Suniti Chakma, Executive Engineer of RHD Feni, explained that the damage is concentrated heavily on the Dhaka-bound lane because it bears the continuous weight of heavily laden cargo trucks arriving from the Chittagong Seaport.
The combination of stagnant rainwater and extreme axle loads rapidly disintegrates the asphalt. The RHD has assured that repair teams are working around the clock and expects the current phase of patching to be wrapped up within two days, provided the heavy rains subside.
Until sustainable, heavy-duty engineering upgrades are introduced, the country’s primary economic artery will continue to demand a steep toll in both commercial efficiency and human lives.