The fading beauty of Rajshahi city
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But when it comes to appreciating the beauty of a city, the condition of its roads mostly comes even to the mind of the most loyal resident of a city.
The residents of Rajshahi city now only reminisce how beautiful and well-maintained the city roads were even a few years ago.
Back then its residents used to boast their city to be the cleanest in the country too.
Those golden days are gone as crumbly roads in and around the city now only provide bumpy rides and body aches, if not disastrous accidents.
The situation started spiralling downwards four years back when the newly-renovated roads were dug up to lay pipes for distributing natural gas to households.
The prospect of receiving gas at doorsteps pleased the city residents initially when Pashchimanchal Gas Company Limited (PGCL) started installing its network throughout the city in 2013.
But after the gas pipeline work was done, they watched in dismay that the custodian of the city, Rajshahi City Corporation, left the roads unrepaired for years, even though it had received compensation from the PGCL for the road digging.
The neglected roads continued to wear out ever since and the wear and tear took a turn for the worst this monsoon season that produced day after day of torrential rain and heavy flooding.
Left to decay for four years, most roads in the city of 30 wards are now synonymous with nightmare and anguish.
The worst of them all is the gateway to Rajshahi -- the four-lane highway from Dhaka. A three-kilometre stretch of this highway from Talaimari to Seroil bus stand has lost its upper carpeting and developed large potholes.
As the authorities did not undertake any repair work over the last few months, transport workers and locals have been trying to keep the road passable by filling some of the potholes with rubble.
The Rajshahi-Chapainawabganj road -- 20 kilometres in length, is now riddled with cracks and potholes. Although the road has been causing nightmares to the commuters for over a year, the authorities remain unmoved.
Another busy road left in a deplorable state is the one connecting Nawdapara with Bhadra. Almost five kilometres of this road, frequented by thousands, also needs urgent attention.
Sitting on a sidewalk of a road near Rajshahi Railway Station, bus ticket seller Delwar Hossain witnesses commuter sufferings almost every day.
A few days back, parents of newborn twin babies were going home in an auto-rickshaw, just after being released from the hospital. As the vehicle hit a pothole, the mother holding one of the babies was injured after she went flying and fell in a ditch. Locals and police rushed to help them and sent them back to the hospital again in a different vehicle. Hopefully the babies did not get hurt, Delwar said.
Expressing frustration over the condition of the roads, he said, “When I look at this road, I can't believe this is a city I'm living in.”
A number of transport workers said accidents are becoming increasingly common as most drivers have been driving in the wrong direction to avoid treacherous road on the other side. Auto-rickshaws are overturning frequently. Even loaded trucks are also tipping over, they added.
On August 29, in front of the railway station, a woman was killed and five others injured when a bus rammed an auto-rickshaw and two motorbikes coming in the wrong direction, said OC Amanullah of Boalia Police Station .
When Rajshahi City Corporation Mayor Mosaddek Hossain Bulbul's attention was drawn to the appalling state of the roads, in November, he said they would start an integrated project worth Tk 10 crore to reconstruct the three kilometres of the run-down Rajshahi-Dhaka highway that runs through the city. A drainage system and footpath will also be constructed along the highway, which will take two months to complete.
The city roads -- in all 30 wards -- that were damaged due to digging would be repaired under another project worth Tk 60 crore.
When contacted regarding the 20-kilometre-long Rajshahi-Chapainawabganj road, Roads and Highways Department Executive Engineer Nazmul Hasan said following the completion of tender process, they are likely to undertake the repair work of the road next year at a cost of Tk 16 crore.