Rickety run city roads

With the city dwellers left in a messy and rickety road condition for over a year, the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) is still dillydallying over when to start repair work.

After last year's massive tender scam in the Tk 93 crore road repair work in 10 zones of DCC, re-tendering in eight zones and their approval by the Tender Committee (TC) are now complete.

The TC has recommended appointment of contractors for the work, but the recommendations are awaiting final approval by Mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka, sources said.

They however said they are expecting the Mayor's approval for appointment of contractors 'very shortly'.

In the rest two zones - Zone 8 and Zone 10 - which are free from the tender scam, work will begin in a week or two after final approval by the Mayor, they said.

At present, only five per cent of the nearly 3200-kilometre road network in the city is vehicle worthy, sources in the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) said. The rest are broken and dilapidated, unsafe for vehicles.

Asked on Saturday when repair work will begin, some top officials of DCC failed to specify any time frame and said they hope to start it 'very shortly'.

DCC Chief Engineer Quam-ruzzaman Mahmud, also a member of the TC, declined to talk on the issue while Chief Executive Officer (CEO) AZM Shafiqul Islam said they would 'complete all procedures shortly'.

When requested to specify, the CEO said, "We are in the process".

Following newspaper reports on the tender scam, a high level probe committee in November 23 last year cancelled tenders for the Tk 93 crore works in eight out of 10 zones and recommended re-tendering.

Moreover, another tender scam over bitumen carpeting of city roads under a separate project is still unresolved by the DCC. This may further delay the carpeting work, the sources said.

A three-member committee comprising ward commissioners has already expressed its dissatisfaction over tender manipulation in the project.

Despite the authorities' repeated assurances, most of the main thoroughfares, VIP and VVIP roads, lanes and by-lanes and hundreds of alleys are in deplorable conditions. There has been no road repair work in the city over the last two years, sources in DCC and RHD said.

Never before, the city roads faced so much negligence, many citizens said while talking to this correspondent.

The DCC sources however claimed that negligence in undertaking repair work and poor quality of work in the past worsened the condition of roads.

However, engineers of DCC and RHD explained that unplanned and inadequate drainage network in the city is the main obstacle to durability of roads, especially those having bitumen carpeting. Many of the 90 wards have no drainage network.

For instances, there is no proper drainage network in wards 86, 87, 89. So if bitumen carpeting is done in those areas, it will not sustain due to water logging during rainy season, they said.

Moreover, they said, if the authorities fail to start repair wok during the winter season, it will create problems as the rainy season will affect the work largely.

Besides the DCC, the RHD has taken a Tk 200 crore road repair work under the Dhaka Urban Transport Project (DUTP), funded by the World Bank, which will cover some important roads, said the sources.

Under this project the RHD will construct and repair more than 30 main roads, which include Panthapath Road, Agargaon to Shaymoli, Asadgate to Mohammadpur bus stand, Ananda cinema hall to Bijoy Sarani, Banani rail gate to Mohakhali, American embassy to Gulshan-2 circle and Gulshan-1 circle to Gulshan Arong and some 20 roads in Zone-4. All these will cover about 24 kilometers.

The RHD will also develop 16 kilometers of roads, which include Kataban, North South Road, Nababpur Road, Kakrail, Fakirapool, Kadam Chattar, Purana Paltan, Bijoy Nagar and Shapla Chattar in Motijheel.

Also, Sonargaon Intersection-Shahbagh-Sharak Bhavan-Curzon Hall, Bangla Motor-Moghbazar-Mouchak, Razarbagh-Kamlapur Railway Station and Sayedabad-Rampura Bridge-Moghbazar roads will be developed under the same project, sources added.

Meanwhile, repair of Jatrabari Road and the road near the Holy Cross College at Farmgate are about to be completed.

"We have already started field work in some areas and the work order of the rest will be finalised soon," a top official of RHD said preferring anonymity.