An unguarded spot on busy highway
This is a dangerous spot on Dhaka-Aricha highway when it comes to pedestrian crossing. With no footbridge around and a U-turn there, people often have to take one step forward and two steps back because of the speeding vehicles passing every moment. This is a place where an accident is waiting to happen.
The Prantik Gate area of Jahangirnagar University has long remained unguarded this way, with students calling for installation of a footbridge time and again. But the call fell on deaf ears, while people continue to cross the busy highway amid risks.
This spot is located on the 3km stretch of the highway from Mir Mosharraf Hossain Hall Gate to Bishmail Gate where at least four students of the university were killed and 10 others injured in road accidents in the last four years.
The fatal crash of May 27 last year took lives of two students near C&B bus stand area which prompted students to protest demanding road safety.
Commemorating the incident this year, JU students brought out a procession on May 27 and demonstrated on the campus a day later to press home their five-point demand including installation of a footbridge at Prantik Gate.
This is a busy spot as seven female dormitories of JU, its teachers' residential area, a market and three school and colleges are located near it. Moreover, many university buses use the gate while a bus stop, for both public and university buses, is situated just opposite the gate.
Pedestrians, especially the female resident students and school students, are forced to cross the busy road with chances of fatal accidents as several hundred heavy vehicles, including trucks, use the intersection daily which neither has any traffic police nor traffic signal.
Chand Sultana Ratna, a resident student of Nawab Faizunnesa Hall, said, “It is very risky as every time we get only 15-20 seconds to cross the road in the face of speeding vehicles and moreover there is no traffic police to monitor the situation.”
On the other hand, drivers complained that the pedestrians keep the intersection blocked for several minutes while crossing which causes traffic congestion as well as accidents.
Admitting the problem, JU Vice-Chancellor Prof Farzana Islam said, “We have placed a demand to the Roads and Highways Department for installing a footbridge before the Prantik Gate. We have assigned one deputy registrar for monitoring the progress and the department has recently assured us of taking quick actions.”
However, mentioning another important aspect, the VC said, “There are already two footbridges, one before the university main entrance and another before Bishmail Gate. But many students opt for crossing the road ignoring the footbridges as well as the signboards, installed at a distance of some half kilometre, saying “Use footbridge”.
Md Mehedi Iqbal, an executive engineer of the Roads and Highways Department, Dhaka, said, “We sent a draft of a 40-metre wide footbridge, worth around Tk 2.5 crore, to the road transport and bridges ministry on March 21. Hopefully, a tender will be announced in this month.”
When asked about the delay, Iqbal said, “The footbridge was in our plan but it went into limbo as we were working on other spots. After the accident, the plan got momentum following the university authorities' recommendation.”
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