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Dilapidated roads impair city life

Sayedabad bound buses unload passengers at Gulistan

. Faruque Ahmed
Mud and dusts on city roads are making civic life miserable. With the arrival of the Monsoon city roads now give the look of the replication of muddy countryside. At most places roads run like muddy canals and broken dilapidated road surface with potholes appear readily waiting death traps to risk people's safety.
Most transport vehicles plying from Mirpur to Sayedabad now unload passengers  at Gulistan city center or Shaplachattar in front of Bangladesh Bank because the drivers don't want to move ahead to Sayedabad area.
Sayedabad has now become a highly muddy area with water logging resulting from earth digging by many utility providers and the situation is so worse that even free hand passengers can't move without dirt on cloths or to their baggage.
City roads from Dhanmondi Russel square to Gabtoli Technical points is halfway blocked at many places causing all time traffic congestion. Road from Gulshan Shooting Club to Tajgaon Nabisco point is almost totally broken. Construction of a bridge around the Shooting Club has just caused a mess in the area but the project work is not coming to an end. 
City road from Malibagh to Rampura is also critically dilapidated with broken  surface and water logging at many places. Dysfunctional drainage system is making the situation further worse often flooding most part of the city from short lived rainfall. 
Service providers are digging roads at most places to put pipe lines in the underground without coordination and why it is always in the rainy season has no clear answer. Accidents are now a common scene in city streets killing people and leaving many of others critically injured. But who will take care of the city roads? The divided city corporation makes the job to
almost nobody's business as one set of government officials put the blame on the others for the unplanned civic work. 
Meanwhile, Communication Minister Obaidul Quader is bringing pressure on  highway officials at the districts to carry out quick repairs of the roads and highways before the Eid festival.
But the unattended city road condition is only adding fears to the people how the situation at the districts will improve. Funds constraints, corruptions and inefficiency are impairing the recovery of the road system, the sources said. 
The situation on Dhaka-Chittagong highway remains highly vulnerable to accidents as the earth work at various highway sections and the unfinished construction of the four-way lanes alignment have turned the situation critical. 
The Dhaka-Mymensingh highway is better this time but the Chittagong-Cox's Bazaar road section has become seriously dilapidated from recent floods. Roads at Sylhet and the northern regions have also suffered severely from the floods. 
Even a journey to Joydevpur; which is an exit point from the city remains highly risky from broken surface and potholes. An exit to Chittagong or Sylhet highway from the city through Sayedabad has meanwhile turned into a highly risky adventure. It takes two to three hours at a time to cross the Kanchpur or Demra bridge from Sayedabad to take on the highway or enter into the city from the other directions.
Roads are muddy and dilapidated and at places water logging has made the
situation at Sayedabad critically dangerous for vehicles trying to move ahead in terrible traffic congestion. The flyover construction at the area has made the roads narrow at various points by staggering construction materials thus blocking road sides. 
Earth digging is a common scene in the area with open mouth trenches for putting
cables of gas, electricity or telephone services in the underground. One may vanish unnoticed if he does not move carefully, said a local resident explaining the ordeals of life.
Chief engineer of the Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) Jahangir Alam told
The New Nation that the situation at Sayedabad will significantly improve early next month.
He said it has turned worse because of the earth work of the utility service providers to clear the flyover zone. He said the city corporation is aware of the suffering of the city dwellers and specially, the heavy pressure on the traffic that may come during the forthcoming Eid holidays.
The service providers said they would remove the barriers by July 30, he said adding things will be alright soon.
He declined to comment on implementation of projects under the Northern city Corporation areas.