Uneven width and woeful ballad of over one lakh commuters

The Basabo-Nandipara Road narrowed down (left) and widened up (right) at different points discouraging introduction of major transport system in the area.Photo: STAR

Inconsistent width of Basabo-Nandipara Road, the main thoroughfare for over one lakh inhabitants of Basabo, Madartek, Nandipara, Dakkhingaon and Trimohoni areas, is seriously affecting vehicular movement.
The road is over 40 feet wide upto Basabo playground, but 200 metres away, near Basabo tempo stand, it shrunk to less than 20 feet. Moving 200 metres further down towards Madartek, the stretch of the road from Basabo Cinema Hall to Patwari Building is nearly 40 foot-wide again. Almost 300 metres away, the road again narrowed down to less than 25 feet at Madartek tempo stand.
"I've never seen such an awkwardly-shaped road in Dhaka City", said Mahbubul Hamid, a resident of Madartek.
Human haulers and rickshaws are the two major modes of transportation on this road for the inhabitants of four municipal wards -- 25, 26, 27 and 28 of Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) -- as the inconsistent width of the road is not suitable for the movement of public transportation.
Only a few bus services operate on portions of the road -- from Khilgaon Tilpapara Market via Motijheel, Gulistan to Mirpur and from Jatrabari via Rampura to Uttara.
Commuters, especially women and the elderly, suffer immensely as they first have to get to Atish Dipankar Sarani, a link road from Malibagh rail gate to Sayedabad, to board a bus.
Nusrat Jahan, another Madartek resident, said, "It is almost impossible for women and elderly people to get on a human hauler. The drivers of CNG three-wheelers and taxicabs refuse to go to short distances and the rickshaw pullers even demand almost double the regular fair during rush hours."
"Having no other alternative, most of the time we have to walk for about two kilometres to Atish Dipankar Sarani to get on a bus during office hours," added Nusrat.
Abdul Mannan, a senior citizen from Patwari Building, Basabo, said, "A few banks provide bus transportation for their employees on this road, but whenever a bus or truck enters the link road, it causes a gridlock. For this reason, emergency services such as ambulance and emergency water supply trucks of Wasa refuse to come to this area."
People living the area appealed several times to the DCC to solve their problem by widening the narrow portions of the road, but it fell on deaf ears, said Tanvir Ahmed from Madartek.
However, Kazi Mohammad Borhanuddin, executive engineer of DCC Zone 4, said, "We will not take any such action this year except repairing the road."
Electric poles are also obstructing traffic movement on the narrow segments of the road. "It's such an unplanned road that DCC electric poles, standing 3 to 4 feet inside both sides of the road, turn the road even narrower," said Shahidul Islam, a resident of Banosri, Madartek.
When asked for his comments over the issue, Abul Kalam Azad, executive officer of DCC Zone 4, said the road was developed in an unplanned manner. "We will take immediate action to move the electric poles closer to the edge of the road. We will also include the Basabo-Nandipara Road in the next development project."
The estate officer of DCC, Khalil Ahmed, however expressed his ignorance over the issue of the road's inconsistent width and said, "We will take steps if residents of the area complain to us."
Rejecting the DCC estate officer's claim, Golam Hossain, commissioner of DCC Ward 27, said he had presented the DCC with a petition for widening the road and he even sent petitions to the offices the Army chief and the chief adviser.
"For several years, I've been trying to have the road widened for the development of transportation. I have the copies of the application that I submitted to the DCC, the Army chief and the chief adviser," he added.
Locals believe traffic congestion in the area will be reduced significantly if the road is widened.
They said a 60-foot-wide road was built recently from Konapara, Demra to Nandipara. If the Basabo-Madartek link road is also expanded to 60 feet, bus services could be introduced from Demra to Gulistan, bypassing the Jatrabari-Sayedabad intersection. This would help reduce the extra pressure of vehicles at those busy points.