Construction Of Gulistan-Jatrabari Flyover
Public sufferings mount
There seems to be no end to public sufferings due to traffic congestions on the ever busy potholed road on way to the under construction Gulistan-Jatrabari flyover, from either side.
The sufferings of the thousands of people who have to shuttle every day between their homes in the eastern part of the city and workplaces at the city centre increased manifold since the construction of the flyover, officially Mayor Hanif Flyover, began in 2009.
This is also a common experience for countless others travelling between the capital city and several eastern and north eastern destinations.
They face the problems as the contractors are concentrating on the construction Jatrabari flyover with none to care for repairing the roads and sidewalks damaged in the process.
An official of the Orin Group, which is building the flyover, however, said that the repairs were the responsibility of Dhaka South City Corporation.
DSCC officials said they could not start the repairs of at least five kilometer of roads due to the delay in completion of the flyover.
Everyday thousands of travelling public are held up at different points leading to the under construction flyover for hours together due to the unavoidable congestions.
It’s a nightmare for them crossing Sydabad, Hatkhola, Rajdhani Market, Joikalimandir and of course Jatrabari the main flyover site.
The broken, potholed roads make the journeys all the more painful day in and out.
At important points like the Rajdhani Market, Janapad at Sydabad the road narrowed down due to the flyover construction.
Road users face horrid time everyday having to wait in long queues at different intersections on this ever busy road.
Drivers said they find it extremely difficult to manoeuvre trucks, buses and other big vehicles on the narrowed down road with many turns and intersections.
Slow traffic movement and severe congestion are unavoidable realities.
Orion Group official Khaled Masud, who looks after the flyover project’s supply chain, told New Age that repairing the roads and sideways was the responsibility of the DSCC.
Former BUET vice-chancellor Jamilur Raza Chowdhury said that the global practice required the construction group to repair the roads and sidewalks damaged during flyover construction.
But under the terms of the contract with the Orion Group, it is the responsibility of Dhaka South City Corporation to repair the roads and the sidewalks, said DSCC administrator Nazmul Islam.
He said the DSCC had selected contractors to start the repairs.
But issuing the work order got delayed due prolonged monsoon and also as the flyover construction continues, he said.
DSCC expects to issue the work order only after the flyover construction is over, he said.
Commuters’ sufferings would come to an end only after the flyover inauguration, he hoped.
Orion Group informed the DSCC that the flyover construction would be completed by the end of this month, he said.
Rains delayed completion of the project, said project director and superintendent engineer at the traffic engineering division of DSCC Ashiur Rahman.
He said that 92 per cent work of the flyover project had been completed.
Khaled Masud said 70 per cent of carpeting of the 11-kilometre flyover was completed.
The preparations are in place for building the toll collection plazas, he said.
The government is keeping the construction group under tremendous pressure for completing the flyover as early a possible, he said.
DSCC officials said the government was desperate to open the flyover to traffic in the next month to show some success in tackling the city’s congestion.
They also said the flyover was scheduled to be completed in December.
As some components of the project would not be ready by next month the sufferings of those travelling to at least a dozen of eastern districts would continue, they said.
The suffering of countless passengers using Jatrabari as the corridor between the capital and the other cities including Chittagong, Sylhet, Comilla, Narsingdi, Chandpur, Noakhali, Feni, Narayanganj and Munshiganj has multiplied since 2009 when the flyover construction began.
-With New Age input
