Ehsanul Haque Jasim :
The homebound people, as it appears, will have to experience serious inconveniences ahead of the upcoming Eid-ul-Fitr during their journey, as most of the roads and highways across the country are in deplorable condition.
Of the total 62,000 kilometers of roads and highways, of which, 12,000 km are under the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) and the rest 50,000 km under the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), are in the deplorable condition. At least 60 per cent of the total roads and highways are in poor state, official sources said.
With the advent of the monsoon, the condition has further worsened. The reasons behind poor state of roads and highways can be attributed to slow speed of construction work, unplanned digging and absence of repair work, informed sources said.
In this backdrop, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications Ministry on Thursday suggested urgent steps for repair of the roads and
highways for the safe journey of the homebound people during the Eid.
Communications Minister Obaidul Quader on Friday said that they have taken initiatives in this regard. He expressed the hope that public sufferings on different roads, particularly on the Dhaka-Chittagong and Joydevpur-Mymensingh highways, would be reduced this year during Eid compared to last year.
“The roads, which have been affected due to rain, will be repaired. The concerned authorities have been asked to stop digging roads ahead of Eid, and regular work continues to keep the roads and highways fit for vehicular movement,” he said.
The engineers and relevant officials would have no vacation during the Eid holidays and before the Eid, as they have to work for repair of roads, he said adding the movement of truck will be stopped on the highways for 10 days from five days before the Eid.
An inter-ministerial meeting was held at Engineers’ Institution in the city on Friday to take chalk out strategy to overcome the poor state of road and highways. Ministers and high officials of Communications Ministry, Railway Ministry and Sipping Ministry and leaders of different transport associations attended it.
The highways, including the Dhaka-Tangail, Dhaka-Mymensingh, Dhaka-Sylhet, Dhaka-Chittagong and Dhaka-Mawa, have developed large potholes, which slow down vehicles that create long tailbacks.
Some 30-50-km-long tailback is now a regular scene on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway as at least 100 km of roads on the highways is in bad shape. Passengers and drivers told the media people that frequent accidents were taking place on the highway due to rain and potholes.
The highway was in a deplorable state also in 2011 and the authorities spent Tk. 60 crore for repair at that time. Now again big holes and potholes have developed in different parts of the highway putting the commuters to sufferings.
Transport owners on Thursday threatened to go on strike if the authorities fail to repair the highway by Tuesday. Secretary of Inter-district Bus Owners Association Kafil Uddin Ahmed said that the Dhaka-Chittagong highway is in very bad condition. If it remains like this, people will suffer during Eid. Our vehicles are frequently fall in accidents for the cracks and potholes, he said.
President of the Sayedabad Inter-district Bus Owners’ Association Abul Kalma Azad said that construction work on the Dhaka-Chittagong four-lane highway is going on at slow speed. There is hardly any repair work. For this reason, the highway has become dangerous, he said.
Nearly 50 km of the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway has become unfit for use, due to potholes and craters at different points. Md Hafizur Rahman, project director of the ‘Dhaka-Mymensingh Four-Lane’ project, said that they have instructed the contractors of the project to remain alert to tackle any situation ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr.”
Every year the Highways Development and Maintenance (HDM) department of RHD carries out a survey of roads. Its survey of December last year indicates that 41 per cent of the roads and highways are in a bad shape. At least 12 per cent of these are in a deplorable state, full of potholes and ruts. Of the remaining 59 per cent, 20 per cent are in a poor state and 39 per cent are more or less acceptable. In 2012, about 38 per cent of the roads were in a bad shape. The year before that, 55 per cent of the roads were in poor condition.
