A Correspondent :
The current monsoon made the condition of roads in port city the worst than any previous year. Maximum roads in the port city have been damaged and turned dilapidated following recent continuous raining.
Vehicles cannot run on the roads as the conditions of maximum roads are very poor due to lack of renovation after the heavy rainfall in the current rainy season. Most of the roads and alleys in the port city have become unfit for traffic due to cracks and potholes, causing sufferings to the pedestrians, commuters as well as the drivers.
Mayor of Chittagong City Corporation A J M Nasir Uddin visited several damaged roads at Khatoonganj, Chawkbazar and other areas. At that time, Superintendent Engineer of CCC Mohammad Rafiqul Islam, Anwar Hossain, Executive Engineer Mohammad Farhadul Alam and locals were along with the mayor. He directed the officials concerned and engineers to renovate the roads immediately.
Meanwhile, the organization responsible for renovating the roads is trying to fill up the cracks and potholes by the bitumen with small stones. The Superintendent Engineer of CCC Engineerr Rafiqul Islam said, “We are renovating the roads by “Ash Fault Plant” now. We are using the bitumen with small stones to fill up the cracks and potholes of roads now.”
He said, as the raining is continuing almost every day, the CCC workers are using the bitumen with small stones to fill up the cracks and potholes of roads. But, after rain, the bitumen is washed away again.” Nasir Uddin said, 25 to 30 percent of roads in the city were damaged in the current monsoon. The lose of the damaged roads might be more than Tk 500 crore.
He said presently, the projects of Tk 716 crore for renovation of roads, construction of bridges and culverts, ash fault plant projects of Tk 200 crore and canal digging projects of Tk 327 crore are going on.”
He hoped that after the rainy season, renovation of roads of the city will start and at that time the sufferings of the city dwellers might be removed.
It may be mentioned that the maximum vehicles are running with high risk on the roads as the condition of roads became worst in the rain. Big ditches, damaging of carpets and lack of renovation works and continuous downpour in last week made the roads of the port very rough and risky. Most of the roads and alleys in the port city have become unfit for traffic due to cracks and potholes, causing sufferings to the pedestrians, commuters as well as the drivers.
On the other hand, the people of Chittagong cannot be freed from the water logging during the rainy season. Even, during the monsoon rain here in Chittagong, people are suffering from water logging now causing the damages of most of the roads in the port city.
City dwellers said that the port city of Chittagong has now turned into a place of frequent water-logging in the rainy season following a heavy shower even in the moderate rainfall due to faulty drainage system. Almost all the low-lying areas of the city went under water if the city experiences torrential rainfall. The rain water regularly is inundating the city streets by overflowing the drains, because most of the drains were silted up heavily causing disruption in normal discharge of rain water.
Water logging is one of the prime causes of the damaging of the maximum roads in the port city Chittagong now. Most of the city roads have lost their strength due to frequent water-logging and only the temporary repair work will not help the roads sustain for long.
