M M Jasim :Water logging due to heavy rains in the last few days has turned most of the city roads virtually into canals. At the same time, the people of capital Dhaka are now suffering immensely due to dilapidated condition of roads in different areas. Especially, the school-colleges going students, office goers, women and elderly people are the worst victim of this situation.Official sources said, there are 1,800 kilometres of roads in Dhaka South City Corporation [DSCC] and Dhaka North City Corporation [DNCC], but in 1000 kilometres of those are unfit and unusable. Even little rain makes worse the condition of the roads.Numerous potholes have developed on many roads including, Gulshan circle-1 towards Badda, the road leading to Ashkona Hajj Camp along the Airport road and the road between Mirpur-10 crossing and Pallabi, making traffic movement terribly difficult. Besides, the roads have been dug at a number of places for the installation of water pipes, gas line, electric cable and telephone wire in an uncoordinated way. It is a common feature that the digging and cutting of city roads in the name of development works are carried on mysteriously during the monsoon every year. Many parts of Jatrabari-Airport, Azimpur-Newmarket-Gabtali, Kuril-Pragati Sarani-Malibagh-Gulistan-Sadarghat roads have been dug out. As a result, a large portion of the road has become unfit for vehicular movement.Salma Akhter, a class nine student of Jatrabari Girls High School, walks more than one kilometre every day to reach school. “The condition of the roads between my school and home (from Khanka Sharif to Boubazar) is so bad that no rickshaw puller agrees to go and it is difficult to walk,” she said.About 7/8 lakh people live in Faridabad-Gandaria area, but most of the roads here are in bad shape. The road between Loharpool (K.B. road) and Postagola is in a dilapidated condition with so many potholes. “We request the authorities of city corporation to take necessary measures to repair the K B road, Mill barack, Faridabad, Dhalkanagar Lane, I.G. Gate, Karimullahbagh and all other roads in the area at the earliest convenience,” Mahbubuddin Chowdhury, a resident of Gandaria said, Not only that, the condition of the roads in the Swamibagh areas is also in bad shape, for which the sufferings of the people in this area are mounting. Salauddin Ahamed, a resident of Swamibagh area told The New Nation, “Stagnant rain or waste water oozing out of sewer system causes severe damage to the bituminous roads. The city corporations are not equally attentive to the repair of all city roads.” Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) undertook a number of projects to improve the roads and streets in all areas of Mirpur but to no avail.People living in Rupnagar, Arambagh, Shialbari, Duaripara and Pallabi areas said that the roads have not been repaired for long due to the negligence of City Corporation officials.Nazibur Rahman, a resident of Rupnagar, blamed the poor road conditions in his locality, saying that city corporation officials had turned a blind eye to this nagging problem. “We do not know when the roads will be repaired.”Meanwhile, residents of Agargaon and Taltola have said many roads in their areas need to be repaired as well. Moinul Islam, who lives in Taltola, said the road near Taltala Bazar was repaired a year ago but was now full of potholes again.Masud Hossain, assistant engineer of DNCC zone 2, said the city corporation had undertaken a development project to repair the roads in Mirpur, including the Shialbari-Duanipara Road. “The project is financed by the Kuwait government and will be initiated soon,” he added.DNCC Additional Chief Engineer Syed Qudrat Ullah said development projects would be undertaken in the new fiscal year for fixing all the dilapidated roads in areas under the city corporation’s jurisdiction.
