A large number of buses and other vehicles keep the entire bridge blocked during rush hours, creating gridlock on both sides of it.

Bus conductors often stop their vehicles on the bridge and the helpers call passengers while many CNG autorickshaws and rickshaws wait there for passengers.

The chaotic situation disrupts normal flow of traffic on the bridge.

Buses of the Dhaka-Madaripur, Dhaka-Srinagar, Dhaka-Louhajang, Dhaka-Sirajdikhan, Dhaka-Mawa, Dhaka-Dohar and Dhaka-Baligaon routes and tempos of Nayabazar-Abdullapur route use the illegal bus stand.

"We are using this place since 2000 without any interruption. We don't have any alternative place," said Abedur, a bus driver at the illegal stand.

Many buses from Fulbaria bus stand also take a long break on the bridge on their way to different destinations on the other side of the river.

"We get passengers at this point. That is why we use this place as a stand. Nobody disturbs us as we have managed the police," said another driver.

Sometimes the drivers make routine check up of their vehicles or repair them on the bridge. Asked, a driver said: "We do not do any heavy repair work here."

Moreover, two makeshift teashops have been opened at the same place where the bus drivers and conductors hang around throughout the day.

The communications minister at an inter-ministerial meeting in 2001 asked the officials concerned to stop illegal parking of rickshaw, buses and trucks on the bridge. After a few days the bridge was made free from illegal parking, but for a temporary period.

"Now we are planning to set up a police outpost to check illegal parking at this point," said Communications Minister Nazmul Huda.

He also said the government is planning to legalise Fulbaria bus stand to encourage the buses to come straight to the terminal instead of parking at the bridge-end.