A section of people, including political activists, on Thursday allegedly vandalised toll plaza offices and set fire to different places of Bhasha Shaheed Rafiq Bridge over the River Dhaleswari in Manikganj demanding stopping of the toll collection from the bridge.
They also blocked the bridge for an hour and a half causing suffering to people using the bridge.
The bridge connects Singair upazila in Manikganj to Savar.
In 2000, then prime minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the bridge.
The demand for stopping the toll collection from the bridge was raised earlier from time to time.
Under the banner of Tawhidi Janata and Islami Andolan, hundreds of people held a protest rally at about 10:00am and later they brought out a procession in support of their demand.
They started to gather in front of the bridge鈥檚 four toll plazas chanting slogans demanding stopping of toll collection from the bridge.
At one stage, they blocked the bridge with barricades stopping vehicular movement for around one hour and a half.
They, however, allow ambulances and airport-bound passengers to use the bridge.
The demonstrators vandalised four toll plaza offices and set fire to different places.聽
At around 12:30pm, following the intervention of the Bangladesh Army the situation was brought under control and the vehicular movement resumed.
The toll collection stopping movement coordinator, Abu Sayem, alleged that people had been paying tolls for using the bridge for 24 years.
鈥楴o toll is collected from two other bridges at Savar and Keraniganj,鈥� he said, adding that extortion in the name of toll collection needed to be stopped.
Sayem also alleged that in the 24 years already 12 times higher tolls than the bridge construction cost had been collected.
At the protest rally, central Khelafat Majlis organising secretary Sheikh Salauddin, Singair upazila Islami Andolan general secretary Tofazzal Hossain and Manikganj district Anti-Discrimination Student Movement coordinator Omar Faruq delivered speech, among others.
They urged the chief adviser鈥檚 intervention to solve the problem.