Ehsanul Haque Jasim :Roads and highways repair work and digging up of the city roads have become a common feature during the monsoon and ahead of Eid. The government this year also undertook several projects, some say, for embezzling money. In the national budget for fiscal 2014-15, Tk 7,911 crore has been allocated for Road Transport and Highways Division to improve the country’s infrastructure sector. An inter-ministerial meeting on June 23 decided to repair damaged roads and highways across the country ahead of the upcoming Eid-ul-Fitr. The repair work is going on in some parts, while there is no repair work in other parts although 10 days remain for the Eid, according to the sources. There are 72 national highways in the country, while the number of regional highways is 121. Most of the highways are in deplorable condition. According to the experts and observers, the reasons behind the poor state of roads and highways can be attributed to slow speed of construction work, unplanned digging and repair work with materials of low quality. Sources said, the authorities prepared a draft of 71 spots of the country’s highways, which are physically in bad shape and sent the list to the Road transport and Highway Division. Of these spots, the highway police mentioned 33 spots that need immediate repair to make the Eid journey safe and hassle-free. Potholes have been developed on different roads and highways, including the Dhaka-Chittagong, the Dhaka-Mymensingh, the Gazipur-Tangail-Jamalpur, the Daulatdia-Jhenaidah-Khulna and Khulna-Satkhira highways. Many parts of the highways have become muddy and dotted with potholes.The concerned departments take up work to repair the damaged roads and highways on urgent basis. Urgent projects are taken in the name of ensuring hassle-free Eid journey. But the projects cause immense suffering to the people during their Eid journey, as those are not completed before the festival. This year, repair works in many roads have also not been started till now. However, most of roads and highways ahead of the Eid are repaired with materials of the low quality. Many alleged that the urgent projects are taken for massive-stealing of the government fund. However, the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) said that the urgent repair works were taken to ensure hassle-free travel of holidaymakers during the Eid-ul-Fitr.RHD Chief Engineer Md Feroz Iqbal said that they have taken projects to repair different roads and highways, as these are now in dilapidated condition. He, however, said that they would work to make the Eid journey safe and tension-free. Some people said that digging of roads and urgent repair works projects are nothing but breed financial irregularities. “The concerned departments repair the roads ahead of Eid using items of low quality,” said a city dweller. Additional Chief Engineer (Maintenance) of RHD Bipul Chandra Saha, however, said that they had taken the projects as part of their regular maintenance and repairing of road and highways. Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader repeatedly said that the government would repair the roads and highways before the Eid. His confirmation has gone into vain. “Why do the ministry and other concerned departments become busy ahead of the Eid to repair the roads and highways? Why they don’t take the matter into the consideration in other times of the year,” one said. Millions of people are taking preparation to leave the capital city amid risk and tension overlooking poor state of roads and highways across the country. Some roads and highways remain unfit being repaired with materials of low quality and poor maintenance.A number of roads in the capital city and other cities of the country are now in the projects of digging for different development works. The road digging continues from before the monsoon.Digging up of roads in several parts of the Dhaka city worsened city’s traffic congestion and makes movement of commuters difficult. The sufferings will be increasing till the Eid. The city dwellers, it appears, will face immense suffering during the time of leaving the city for their village homes. Digging up of roads is now also going on in Barishal and some other cities. Dhaka-Tangail highway remained unfit for movement within a month of repair. The repair work on the highway ended in the middle of June. Now fresh potholes have been developed in different parts of the highway, including Kalihati of Tangail. It was alleged that the materials of low quality were used during repair of the highway. Most of around 500 kilometers roads in Comilla city have developed cracks and potholes in numerous places, causing inconvenience to movement of vehicles and pedestrians. The Chittagong and Noakhali bound people will also face suffering during their Eid journey due to the deplorable condition of roads in Comilla. Sheikh Mohammad Nurullah, Executive Engineer of Comilla City Corporation, said a tender has been floated for reconstruction works of 116 kilometers roads, involving Tk 12.85 crore in the city. The construction work of the roads are expected to start by July 13, five days before the Eid. The project of widening the 192-kilometre Dhaka-Chittagong highway is not completed within the schedule time in June. The construction work on the highway into four-lane is going on and the construction will case suffering for the homebound people during Eid, said passengers of the highway.
