Traffic mess in Moghbazar
Travelling through Moghbazar and Mouchak areas has become a nightmare as an 8.25km flyover is being built there without any intermediate traffic management system in place.
Long delays in congestion, traffic jams and almost standstill traffic have become regular in the areas where three-lane streets have become single-lane streets at places and that too riddled with huge potholes.
The street from Satrasta intersection to Moghbazar intersection is severely dilapidated. Vehicles move at a snail's pace, left as they are with very little space to move.
“I had to wait for one and a half hours to go to Moghbazar from Satrasta on Sunday afternoon, which is usually a 10-minute trip,” said Abdul Aziz, a CNG-run auto-rickshaw driver.
The project authority should have widened the road from Modhubagh to Wireless Gate, which is now around 10-12 feet wide, to divert vehicles away from Tongi Diversion Road to the street in Hatirjheel, he added.
Traffic worsened at the construction site as the project's concessionaire remained indifferent towards the occupiers of roads and footpaths, complained locals.
Besides, leaving construction materials and debris haphazardly in Shantinagar, Moghbazar and Shatrasta areas
has made things even worse.
In some places, roads have been dug up and have been left like that without any warning signs, making them risky for pedestrians, motorists and all vehicles. Two such spots are in front of the Cosmos Centre and Sirajul Islam Medical College near Mouchak intersection.
The authority's negligence in spraying water at the construction site is affecting people as well. Dust often makes it difficult to breathe.
Enam Ahmed Chowdhury, owner of a drug store at Siddheswari, said though the project authority was supposed to spray water four times a day, they usually do it once every 10 to 15 days.
Mohammad Ali, a shopkeeper at Shantinagar kitchen market, said his income had almost halved in the last month and he blamed the dust, which repels customers.
Project Director Nazmul Alam admitted that the construction work was making people suffer.
“We have no bypass to divert traffic. But we are opening the full road of a particular area upon completion of the construction work there to reduce the sufferings of people,” he said.
On encroachment of roads and footpaths, Nazmul said the authorities have no jurisdiction to evict anybody.
Prof Shamsul Haque of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) said as there was no city government or a high-powered authority to coordinate the activities of all government organisations, development projects like the Moghbazar-Mouchak flyover causes immense sufferings to people.
Had there been a high-powered authority in the city, it would have been possible to keep people's sufferings at a minimum, he added.
Twenty-five percent work of the project has already been completed. The project director hoped that the flyover will be ready for traffic by December next year as per schedule.
The government in February last year initiated the Moghbazar-Mouchak flyover project. The flyover is expected to ease traffic congestion at Satrasta, BFDC, Moghbazar, Mouchak, Malibagh and Shantinagar intersections.
The Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) is implementing the Tk 772.69 crore scheme. Of the amount, Tk 375.24 crore will come from the Saudi Fund for Development, Tk 196.98 crore from the OPEC Fund for International Development and the rest from the Bangladesh government.
Comments