Battered Mirpur roads not repaired for years
Decay has got the better of the roads at Section 11 in Mirpur neighbourhood through lack of repair work over the years, causing daily sufferings to the residents.
And then, they have to stumble their way through the ubiquitous potholes at night as streetlights are ritually out of order most the time.
A resident, Mazharul Islam Bhuiyan, said road 12 on Block B was repaired over three years back, but developed potholes in six months due to negligence on the part of Dhaka City Corporation officials and contractors.
Worse, roads 1 through 8 on the block have not got any repair since their construction in 1998, he said.
Rains only add to the woes. Md Yunus Sheikh, another resident on road 12, said rainwater takes three to four hours to recede, making the paths muddier and slippery.
Rickshaw pullers are reluctant to take the block's roads.
“I have to employ two to three times energy to pull rickshaw on these roads. Ten days back during the last spell of rain, my rickshaw got stuck in a pothole on road 12, injuring the female passenger," a rickshaw puller said.
The condition of road 5 is such that rickshaw pullers are reluctant to hit the furrowed path even at dry times.
The picture in Block B is typical of the other blocks of Section 11.
Abdur Razzak, executive engineer for Zone 8 of Dhaka City Corporation, blamed fund constraints for the bad road conditions.
"It takes Tk 30-40 lakh to repair a single road. We'll need at least Tk 5 crore to repair all the roads," he said.
He said the Nagar Bhaban may allocate Tk 70-80 lakh for roadworks in the area in the current fiscal which is hardly enough for repairs to even three to four roads.
On allegations of poor maintenance standards, he said roadworks in the past two years maintained quality.
Work before that might have been sloppy, he said.
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