Walking on the Dhaka city’s footpaths with a sense of comfort has become unimaginable because of their poor maintenance with slabs missing or broken and encroachment by hawkers, vehicles and kiosks, piling garbage and construction activity.
‘I’m an avid walker and I want to do that in the evenings these days, but now I’m thinking about giving it up because I cannot do it leisurely; we have to get onto to the road because the footpaths are filled with garbage or parked with vehicles. And where apartment buildings are being constructed, the footpaths are just buried under construction materials,’ says engineer Mujibul Haq in his mid-60s.
During a visit to the city’s Motijheel, Paltan, Rampura, Badda, Malibagh, Farmgate, Dhanmondi, Mirpur, Mohammadpur and Gulshan areas, the front-sides of many buildings beside roads were found to have occupied notable portions of the roads.
Beggars, floating people and goods of shops occupy the pavements in many areas, causing immense sufferings to the pedestrians.
Illegal parking of bicycles and motorbikes is also taking place unabated on the walkways, and pedestrians are being forced to risk their lives by walking on the roads.
Contacted, Abdul Mannan, a member, planning of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakkha, said about 80 per cent of the city buildings have been constructed disregarding their Rajuk-approved plans.
Asked about the illegal construction on the front-sides of buildings, Abdul Mannan said it is not Rajuk but the city corporation that will take steps against those who illegally built the structures.
Contacted, Dhaka South City Corporation administrator Nazmul Islam said a team of the corporation, led by two magistrates, is conducting drives to free footpaths in the DSCC area from illegal occupation and demolish unlawfully-built structures on the roads.
He said they are taking prompt action on receiving complaints of grabbing roads through constructing structures illegally.
Asked about the steps Dhaka North City Corporation is taking in this regard, DNCC administrator Akhter Hossain Bhuiyan said they would publish a notice in the newspapers soon asking the owners of the makeshift shops on footpaths and road-occupying buildings to remove their illegal establishments within seven days of the notice.
Courtesy of unbconnect.com
