The thousands of households in the area, as well as the hundreds who travel to the numerous offices, clinics, schools, colleges and coaching centers in Lalmatia, have been suffering daily because of the rutted roads. Apart from an occasional eyewash maintenance job, the streets of Lalmatia have been largely neglected over the past decade.

Those seeking to traverse these thoroughfares by rickshaw or auto-rickshaw are in for a bone-shaking ride, as the rickshaw-pullers and CNG drivers try to navigate the moonscape of potholes and half-open manholes. In many places, construction materials stacked on the streets take up precious road space, causing further hindrance to all movements.

With the exception of some roads in Blocks A, B and C, most of the roads in Lalmatia are in a terrible condition, with some of the busiest roads, such as the one in front of the Lalmatia Girls College, being the most eroded.

Accidents are common, especially in the rainy season, when the craters fill up with rainwater, making it impossible to gauge their depth.

Mohammed Humayun Kabir, whose dry cleaning store is located opposite a partially open manhole in the middle of a busy Block-D intersection, said "The hole cannot be seen when the road is inundated by rainwater, and in the last few months I have seen two women being helped away from here with broken legs because they stepped into it unknowingly and got their legs stuck".

Water logging that can be seen snaking up almost every road in Lalmatia after some rainfall makes travel on foot even more difficult and dangerous than it normally is.

Lutfur Rahman, aged 80, finds it hard enough to negotiate the potholed roads strewn with rough assortments of stones on his way to the mosque everyday, let alone the rain adding to his troubles.

For elderly mosque-goers like him, a rickshaw trip is equally fraught with hazard, since the jarring ride causes their bones and joints to ache.

According to medical professionals, frequent and sustained jerking from bumpy vehicle rides can indeed cause back and neck pains in those who are weak or elderly, and aggravate them in people with existing problems.

In the face of the people's persisting plight, the Lalmatia Co-operative Housing Society has tried to lobby the municipal authorities to repair roads, but to little avail. Md. Tofail Ahmed Manik, member of the Housing Society and a local resident, said, "We have submitted applications to the mayor's office, but they have totally ignored our requests for road repair."

Abul Hasnat, Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) executive engineer for Zone-6, who is temporarily in charge of the Lalmatia zone, acknowledged that many such applications had been overlooked, but cited budget constraints. "We get only Tk.66 lakh per ward, so we cannot fix all the roads in one year, but we are expecting to start work on some of the roads in E-block in 1 or 2 months," he said.

Some Lalmatia residents, preferring anonymity, alleged that their ward commissioner, Atikul Islam Matin, who is now in jail under corruption charges, was a political appointee who diverted funds designated for mending streets to his personal profit.

Kazi Nasima Mannan, commissioner of ward nos. 45, 47 and 49, acknowledged the pathetic state of Lalmatia roads, and said she submitted an estimate for repair works to the DCC about 5 months ago. "The other commissioner bore greater responsibility for road conditions, and he did not do a good job, but my repair proposal should be executed in another 5 months, and you will see the works will be better under me," she promised.

In the meantime, the roads of Lalmatia continue to be riddled with potholes and ravaged by rain, and it is the local people who are suffering the most.