Dhaka's Postogola-Sadarghat Road in dismal state
Aysha Habiba and Farzana Yesmin, first year students of Dhaka Mohanagar Mohila College, are forced to walk for about an hour every day when returning home from their college, due to the terrible condition of the Postogola-Sadarghat road.
Although rickshaws are available, they are afraid to use them as the road is full of enormous potholes. The students would rather walk for an hour in midday heat then use rickshaws.
Aysha Habiba said, "When going home we cannot board human haulers due to the rush and so we walk. We usually avoid rickshaws because the ride is very painful and there is always a risk of accident."
Just about a month back, a woman died on the spot after the rickshaw she was in turned over when going over a pothole, said Mohammad Sohel, driver of a human hauler.
Md Khalil, another driver, said rickshaws, CNG-run auto-rickshaws and other three-wheelers regularly turn over as the road is in a terrible condition.
The condition of about a kilometre stretch of the road from Postogola Fire Service and Civil Defence Office to IG Gate is the worst, said one Mohammad Aziz, another human hauler driver, adding that the road has been like this for the last three years with authorities paying it no attention.
Just before Ramadan, Dhaka South City Corporation repaired a part of the road from IG Gate to Lohar Pool, but that part was already in a relatively better condition, he added.
Aziz said they have repair their vehicles frequently because of the road's bad condition and repair works cost about Tk 3,000 to Tk 4,000.
The road from Postogola to Sadarghat is very vital as a large number of vehicles, including buses and trucks, use the road from Shyampur, Sadarghat, Islampur and Court Kachari areas, he said.
Mobarok Hossain, owner of Iron Store on the road, said no rickshaw-vans want to carry goods for his store.
He said the fare from Dholaipur to his shop is Tk 100 but he has to pay double the fare as rickshaw-van pullers are reluctant to ply their vehicles on the road.
An official of zone-5 of the city corporation said the road would be repaired under a project named "Clean Air and Sustainable Development" shortly, and a tender has already been floated on it.
He said they are hoping to start work very soon.
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