Hundreds of trucks use this road every day to carry goods to the Chowk Bazaar and Badamtali wholesale markets. Traders from Islampur’s wholesale cloth market next to Chowk Bazaar are also heavily dependent on this road. And residents of a part of Old Dhaka also use this road to go to the Sir Salimullah Medical College and Hospital (Mitford Hospital).
After the heavy rains for the last few days, the movement of rickshaws and motorcycles from this road under the Babubazar bridge has also become risky. Talking to Prothom Alo on Thursday, local resident and Publicity and Publication Secretary of Kotwali Thana Awami League, Jahangir Sikdar said that if one walks on this road, his clothes get ruined by the mud.
Gandaria new road is four and a half kilometer away from Babubazar bridge. This road, about one and a half kilometer long, is also full of potholes. At some places the pits are so big that they turn into small ponds during rains. Commuters and drivers using this road are at extreme risk.
Gandaria’s businessman Ibrahim Ahmed told Prothom Alo, the road is dilapidated. Rickshaws often overturn after falling into potholes.
Such a pathetic condition is not only of this road. Most of the lanes and bylanes of Dhaka South City Corporation face a similar plight. Municipal sources say that a total of 2.43 billion taka (243 crore taka) has been spent on road repairs and development over a period of three years since the current mayor Sheikh Fazle Nur Taposh took over. Tk 244.7 million (Tk 24 crore 47 lakh) was spent on maintenance and development in the financial year 2020-21. The expenditure in 2021-22 was over Tk 1.11 billion (Tk 111 crore 12 lakh). And in 2022-23 Dhaka South City allocated around Tk 1.07 (Tk 107 crore 50 lakh) for road repair. The allocation for road development for the current financial year is Tk 2.63 billion (Tk 263 crore).
This correspondent of Prothom Alo traveled about 48 km of road in 20 areas of Dhaka South City by motorcycle from Monday to Wednesday. The pitch has been uprooted on about 35 km of the road and there are huge potholes in it. And the rains in the last few days have made life even more difficult for people using these roads.
Dhaka South City engineers say the road from Kakrail Jame-Masjid (mosque) to the Intercontinental Hotel in Shahbagh (Hare Road) is smooth. In comparison, 50 per cent of the roads in the city south are in need of repair. The South City has 1,656 km of roads under its jurisdiction.
