Most city roads in bad shape

Most of the roads, lanes and by-lanes in the Dhaka city remain in a poor condition for lack of regular maintenance by the Dhaka City Corporation.
The corporation authorities have kept their eyes away from taking care of the city roads for about three years, making traffic difficult and risky in the capital.
Road digging work that started at the fag end of the just-concluded financial year has left many roads almost unusable in many areas of the city. Besides, the monsoon rains have aggravated the condition of the dug-up roads.
Roads at Badda, Basabo, Madartek, Mir Hajirbagh, Babu Bazar, Phulbaria, Islambagh, Gendaria, Lalbagh, Postogola, Jatrabari, Mirpur, Kazipara, Manipur, Mohammadpur and Karwan Bazar and Sonargaon roads near the defence ministry lie in worst condition.
The city is witnessing accidents and severe traffic congestion most frequently because of the shabby roads.
Different utility service agencies especially the Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority have started digging different city roads at the start of the monsoon like every year.
The city corporation is supposed to re-carpet the roads within 15 days after installing sewerage or water pipeline or telecom wires, but most of the dug-up roads have remained uncarpeted for months.
Experts say that roads without carpeting get extensively damaged because of frequent movement of heavy vehicles on them.
Most of the city’s some 2200km road stretches have developed numerous potholes with many manholes remaining open badly hampering traffic.
‘Even when the road is free from traffic, I cannot raise speed of my car on the road stretch from Tongi diversion road to Moghbazar due to bumpy surface of the road,’ Zubaer Hamid, a resident of Eskaton, told New Age.
Fazlu Miah, bus conductor of a city bus service, said the bumpy roads with potholes are often causing damage to our vehicles.
‘We have to spend a handsome amount of money almost every week on minor repair of our vehicles,’ he added.
When contacted, Dhaka mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka said, ‘We could not carry out road repair work during the regime of the past military-backed caretaker government as the corporation got an allocation of only Tk 27 crore during the period. The allocation is the lowest in the history of the corporation.’
Corporation sources said they are now only patching the roads on temporary basis without using bitumen as permanent repair would not be effective because of rainwater during the current monsoon.
A DCC official said the corporation might invite tender for permanent carpeting of the city roads in November.

Courtesy of NewAgebd