Dhaka people suffer for unplanned road digging
May 11, 2009
Unplanned and mindless digging of roads in different areas of the Dhaka city is hampering smooth traffic and causing immense sufferings to the people, particularly pedestrians. Utility service agencies such as WASA, Dhaka Electric Supply Authority, Titas Gas and Bangladesh Telecommunication Company Ltd have started road digging work in the city around one month back. Like every year, the agencies are conducting unplanned road digging in different areas of the capital without taking into account the sufferings of the city dwellers, some residents said.
The Dhaka mayor, Sadek Hossain Khoka while talking to New Age alleged that Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority was carrying out road digging work in violation of the guidelines of the one-stop cell formed in 2003 to bring discipline and coordination in conducting the job.
Road digging work is going on in Mohammadpur, Mirpur, Segunbaghica Rajarbagh, Kalabagan, Dhanmondi, Shantibagh, Shantinagar, Shahjahanpur, Motijheel, Fakirapool, Uttara and on Manik Miah Avenue, Abdul Ghani Road in front of secretariat, RK Mission Road, KM Das Lane and Uttara.
More than 15,000 residents on West Kazi Para Road in Mirpur have been facing sufferings for more than three weeks as the authorities concerned are digging about one-kilometre stretch of the road.
Some of the residents said the road will turn into a death trap during the coming monsoon as the WASA authorities are yet to complete the installation work of sewerage pipeline.
Female members of the area are the worst sufferers as they can hardly walk along the road because of the digging work, they said.
Kazi Abduus Salam, a grocery shop owner at Kazipara said, ‘Customers do not want to come to my shop because of a ditch in front of the shop.’
‘Sale at my shop has declined by 40 per cent. If it continues for more than couple of weeks, I have to count huge financial losses,’ he added.
Rashed Islam, a resident of Uttara, said the authorities, if necessary, of course, will dig roads, but why they will carry out the job in an unplanned way? Why they will dig all the roads at a time. They should do the job in phases in the interest of the city dwellers.’
Many points in the road digging sites have got clogged with water, hampering smooth traffic and several vehicles met with accidents plunging to ditches created for digging, some locals said.
According to the guidelines, digging of all the city roads should be completed in 15 days and the water supply agency will have 21 days to lay sewers and water lines.
The utility service agencies or other organisations in most areas have not sported any sign to inform the people of the reason for road digging.
Although service providers sometime put up signs, they do not explain the reason for road digging and mention the date for completion of the work, he said.
During a visit to different areas, our correspondent found no yellow tape in most of the digging sites that also lack sufficient lights at night time. Besides, no red lights were seen in the digging sites.
Asked why the DCC authorities have failed to enforce road digging guidelines, the Dhaka mayor said, ‘We do not dig roads. The WASA digs major portion of the city roads. But they do not follow the guidelines. We have sent letters to them (Dhaka WASA) several times in this regard, but they did pay any heed to the call.’
‘There must have coordination between these two organisations either by incorporating WASA in the DCC or the DCC in the WASA,’ the mayor said.
The Dhaka WASA managing director, Shahjahan Ali Mollah, however, declined to make any comment on the ongoing road digging work.
Source: New Age
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