REPORTS in a local daily mentioned that The Under Clean Air and Sustainable Environment project which started in June 2009, the then Dhaka City Corporation had planned to set up 25 new footbridges. Md Mofizur Rahman Khan, executive engineer of the portion of the CASE project under the Dhaka South City Corporation said they have completed construction work and one year maintenance period of only five footbridges .The Executive Engineer said the estimated cost was Tk 1.5 crore per bridge. Among the 23 new footbridges 13 would be installed in the DNCC and 10 in the DSCC areas.
However, at present, the Dhaka South City Corporation has 33 footbridges and the Dhaka North City Corporation has 54, many of which are not usable in the absence of maintenance. Pedestrians have alleged that most of the existing footbridges have become unfit for use and almost ruined by hawkers, floating people and drug addicts. Dhaka South City Corporation estate officer Shamsul Alam said their responsibility ends as soon as a bridge is constructed and opened to the public. He said it was the duty of the adjacent police station to keep the footbridges free from hawkers, beggars and floating people. Dhaka South City Corporation chief engineer Md Zahangir Alam slammed the decision of the Project officials for setting up footbridges within so short a distance.
Currently there are 87 footbridges in Dhaka city – at an average cost of Tk 1.5 crore the total expenditure on them would be over Tk 100 crore. Building 25 new bridges at an additional cost of Tk 37.5 crore means that upto now the two DCCs have spent over Tk 160 crore on footbridges alone. The total budgets for the two corporations come to roughly Tk 3800 crore as per the 2012-13 budgets. Thus the spending on footbridges alone has consumed almost 11 percent of the total budget of the two corporations.
Was this expenditure necessary? With Tk 160 crore one can make at least 600 apartments on government lands and give them to the poor – the same poor who are now occupying the footbridges and using them as open toilets and kitchens. The amounts can be stretched even farther if these people were given the opportunity to participate in employment generation activities. Even if the money were set up in a trust fund to help beggars and floating people it would have been to put to better use. A footbridge which acts as a shelter to floating people or as an open air shop for hawkers does not end up fulfilling its main function-to act as a means whereby people can travel from one point to another safely.
Why can’t the bridges be properly maintained -the responsibility of the corporations should not end with the end of construction – the police can’t be expected to properly maintain bridges as they are not adequately staffed. A separate corps of maintenance workers who would double up as guards for these bridges could be formed. Repairing or performing maintenance work on the bridges would reduce the need to produce such bridges every year – this is a very bad way to spend public funds. There must be an effective and cohesive way to spend the minimum amount to get the maximum results. As the old adage goes-a stitch in time will save nine.
