Although Dhaka City Corporation spends more than Tk 1.0 billion annually for maintenance of roads, lanes and by-lanes, it is yet to carry out essential repair work of the major thoroughfares lying decrepit for long.
It may sound strange, but the staggering amount is spent for repairing the roads in the fastest growing capital.
DCC Mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka disclosed this in a recent letter to the finance ministry.
A copy of the letter is obtained by daily sun.
Despite the sizeable amount of expenses, the city dwellers can hardly notice any major improvement in repairing more than 350-kilometre roads, lanes and by-lanes.
They undergo untold sufferings because the major roads and intersections are in a state of dilapidation.
Ali, who rides a motorcycle to maintain smooth communication in the heavily congested metropolis, said he avoids certain city roads because of their shabby condition.
“Kuril Biswa Road is one of the run-down roads as it is full of potholes,” he told daily sun.
Public sufferings heighten during rainy season as perennial waterlogging and potholes pose serious threats to almost 20 million people.
Abu, a rickshawpuller, said he had an accident due to nagging waterlogging in Shantinagar area the other day.
He escaped major injury but his rickshaw got damaged badly. “The repairing charge cost me almost my one-day income.”
In his letter, the city father highlighted the road maintenance cost to avoid payment of Tk 3.54 billion it owed to the government for servicing liability to the lending agencies.
Of the total liability, the principle amount is Tk 2.01 billion and Tk 1.51 billion as interest. Earlier, the finance ministry gave reminders to DCC, the responsible body to repair and develop damaged roads and footpaths, on a number of occasions to clear the debt.
But the DCC officials expressed inability to pay the debt, saying it was difficult for them to clear the debt because of shrinking income against increasing expenses, including Tk 1.0 billion for road maintenance.
Instead, DCC urged the ministry to waive the amount of interest and adjust the principle amount with a budgetary allocation it receives as compensation of the suspended city tax since 1981-82 fiscal year.
The mayor said city tax used to account almost 28 percent of the DCC income till the early eighties.
Compensation fee provided by the government was less than 3 percent of the present income, he pointed out.
In the current fiscal, DCC has targeted Tk 8.5 billion as revenue income, including Tk 4.2 billion from holding tax, Tk 1.0 billion as lump sum grant from the government and Tk 1.0 billion as special allocation.
Besides, DCC expects to receive another Tk 15.90 billion during the fiscal from the projects funded by the government and aid agencies.
The amount is Tk 3.3 billion higher than that of the 2010-11 fiscal year.
Of the total budget of Tk 27.15 billion, DCC allocated Tk 4.02 billion as revenue expenditure and Tk 22.40 billion as development expenditure.
-With Daily Sun input
