Jatrabari Road
DCC official draws flak from locals
The Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) administrator was severely rebuked by transport workers and local people at Jatrabari in the capital yesterday while he was accompanying the communications minister to check the condition of roads.
Such a situation ensued after a Chittagong-bound luxury bus of Saudia Paribahan got one of its front wheels stuck in an earth-filled ditch right before DSCC Administrator Jillar Rahman and Communications Minister Obaidul Quader.
As the bus driver made attempts to drive the bus out of the ditch, people and transport workers gathered around the two and vented their anger at Jillar. Utility service providers have been digging trenches along the two sides of the roads from Gulistan to Jatrabari for over two months to relocate the utility lines. The relocation has been done on some portions of the roads, but the city corporation is yet to take any step to make the repairs.
Jillar had not made any effort to fill the ditches with sand, leaders of transport workers said, yelling at him. The DSCC administrator then left the place, saying nothing in his defence.
Quader, after visiting the roads between Jatrabari and Kanchpur, said commuters in the areas had been suffering a lot because of the ditches dug by four utility service providers. He hoped the DSCC would repair the roads before the Eid vacation.
He also said the DSCC administrator had informed him that all the utility service providers– Titas gas transmission and distribution company, Dhaka water supply and sewerage authority, Dhaka power distribution company and Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Ltd– would complete their tasks by today.
The roads at Jatrabari had also been damaged due to the ongoing construction of the Jatrabari-Gulistan flyover, the minister said, adding, however, that the area was not under the communication ministry.
Chief Engineer of DSCC Jahangir Alam said there was no way to drain water from the road near a fish wholesale market in Jatrabari and that was why the authorities could not start the repair work. Water remained stagnant as a market was being constructed, filling in a portion of Kutubkhali canal nearby, he added.
As a temporary solution, the roads would be repaired with brick chips within three to four days to reduce the sufferings of commuters, Jahangir said.
The condition of roads under the communication ministry is much better now than it was earlier, Quader noted. Road conditions would be improved and people will not face much difficulty in their journey to their village homes before Eid, he said, adding mobile units of the Roads and Highways Department had been working round the clock to repair ditches and potholes on highways across the country.
Acknowledging his failure to reduce traffic congestion and road accidents, the minister said coordination among the communication ministry, police, district administrations, local governments and highway police was needed to find a way out of the problem.
-With The Daily Star input
