Locals take it upon themselves
Even a year ago, it took commuters some 30 minutes to travel a 1.5-km stretch on Natunbazar Road in Dhaka's South Paikpara as the narrow road remained congested with traffic.
Fed up with the situation, locals have taken matters into their own hands.
With support of the local councillor, they not only vacated space in front of their establishments, but also bore all the expenses needed to demolish parts of already-built structures to make more space for the road.
As a result, the around 12 feet road has now become a 20 feet one, making commuting on it much faster and easier.
Natunbazar Road, also known as Pradhan Sarak (main road), is a vital stretch as it leads to the 60-foot road and is also planned to connect the proposed 100-foot road near Ansar camp.
Not just the Kallyanpur-Natunbazar Road, a total of 17 roads out of 27 in the ward have been widened to at least 20 feet in the last two and a half years.
The initiative was undertaken by Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) Councillor (ward-11) Dewan Abdul Mannan, and the residents gradually came forward in its support.
While visiting the area recently, this correspondent spoke to quite a few locals, who expressed their satisfaction over the initiative.
Md Sharif, a resident of Natunbazar area, said roads in the area used to be narrow, only six to 14 feet wide, which hampered vehicular movement and caused gridlocks.
“Vehicles like fire or garbage trucks or ambulances could not even enter some of the narrow roads,” he added.
Ibrahim Islam Ovi, a ninth grader at Hakkani Mission School and College in Paikpara, said, “Earlier, it took me 30 minutes to go to school on a rickshaw, but it takes only 10 minutes now.”
Initially, the locals said, residents were reluctant about the DNCC plan, since widening the roads meant vacating a portion of space in front of their houses and shops.
But later, they not only agreed to it thinking about its beneficial aspect, but also bore the expenses needed to demolish the portions marked by DNCC.
“The owners, whose buildings were on the road, had to leave 100-square-foot space to extend it,” said MM Firoz, a house owner in Natunbazar.
“It cost me around Tk 4 lakh to dismantle my boundary wall, vacate the asked space and then erect a new one,” he added. “But, we are happy as vehicles such as fire or water supply trucks can ply the road easily now,” Firoz added.
Some residents even spent up to Tk 10 lakh to remove and rebuild different parts of their establishments to widen Natunbazar Road. Later, DNCC workers removed the debris and repaired it.
But the change in people's mindset did not come easily as they had to sacrifice a portion of their already-built establishments.
This is where the councillor stepped in and made it possible.
While talking to The Daily Star, Councillor Dewan Abdul Mannan said, “Initially, I did not get proper response from the residents.”
“But, I didn't give up. I held a series of meetings with the residents and tried to convince them… I told them it was for the betterment of the neighbourhood. Eventually, they were convinced and co-operated,” he said.
The councillor said Pirerbagh and Paikpara areas were developed in an unplanned way. “We have undertaken various development activities to revamp the areas,” he added.
“The 60-foot road now has eight junctions. Besides widening the [Natunbazar] road, I have also opened up three dead-ends and connected those to the 60-foot road. As a result, people are now reaping the benefits of the initiative,” he said.
“I also requested the councillor of ward-13 to extend the roads in his area,” he continued.
All the roads in the seven wards under DNCC zone-4 were constructed haphazardly. On the other hand, most of the landlords built their buildings defying Rajuk's (Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha) rule of keeping a particular amount of space free in front of their establishments, the councillor told The Daily Star.
“Work for extending the remaining 10 roads in my ward [ward 11] is underway. But, we also have to shift utility poles to the roadside to fully utilise the widened roads,” he added.
“We have already reached out to Dhaka Electricity Supply Company Ltd (Desco) and Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Ltd (BTCL), but they asked for Tk 3.5 crore and Tk 30 lakh respectively for shifting the poles,” the councillor added.
Contacted, Md Sharif Uddin, superintending engineer of DNCC, said they have plans to shift utility poles gradually with the annual development programme funds or DNCC's own funds.
Comments