The Dhaka city roads present the following questionable aspects, namely, digging of roads without proper coordination, erection of road dividers, setting up of speed breakers in an unplanned manner, using roads as dumping grounds for building materials, etc.

Indiscriminate and unplanned digging of city roads by various service agencies for laying underground pipelines and cables has been causing serious traffic congestion as well as compounding the sufferings of city people.

Officials of the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC), the licensing authority for allowing street digging for development work, said the dry season up to April is the appropriate time for digging of trenches and therefore they usually allow digging of the city streets in the said period. Different service agencies, however, do their work around the year. The digging continue during the rainy season disrupting usual traffic movement.

The DCC officials said that the Corporation had no alternative but to allow various service agencies to dig even the newly carpeted streets because different multi-national agencies disburse funds at various times of the year.

Over the years, it is reported that the DCC was repeatedly urging the various service agencies concerned including T&T, Titas Gas, Dhaka WASA, DESA, and DESCO to complete their digging work in the dry season, considering the wastage of public money in terms of repeated repair of the streets. This unusual practice was however,

continuing despite the appeal.

Some of the important roads which have already fallen prey to the digging operations include SAARC fountain intersection, Bangla Motor intersection, Sonargaon Link Road, Hatirpool, Panthapath, Green Road, etc. There has been no evidence of any hurry on the part of the agencies concerned for early filling of the dug-up roads by sand or bitumen carpeting.

The other problem on the city roads is the road dividers. The DCC constructed the dividers on many important thoroughfares during the

last few months to make separate lanes for rickshaws and autorickshaws. But the plan not only failed to reduce traffic congestion, but also created an anarchic situation on the roads. The purpose of the plan is said to have remained unfulfilled. The rickshaws and autorickshaws care little to use these lanes and use the other part of the road competing with the heavy vehicles. Traffic personnel hardly monitor proper utilisation of the newly created lanes.

Speed breakers on city roads are erected to control the speed of motor vehicles within certain limits at certain points of roads where considerations of road safety and security of road users are important factors. For examples, speed breakers are raised at entrance and exit points of schools, hospitals and other important organisations where safety requirements for passing vehicles and pedestrians traffic are of paramount significance.

It has, however, been observed that erection of speed breakers on city roads does not always follow some basic principles. Sometimes the considerations of safety are so much overplayed that speed breakers are raised on a small stretch of road which, in effect, considerably

slow down the vehicular traffic, leading, at times, to traffic jams at peak hours, much to the inconvenience of travelling passengers.

Dumping of construction materials on roads and footpaths continue unabated. A High Court Bench gave a verdict on February 11 asking the government to keep city roads and footpaths from illegal occupation and encroachment. The verdict is yet to be executed by the authorities.

Armed with the ruling of the High Court, the Dhaka City Corporation should exert fully pressure in performing its duties and responsibilities in the matter of clearing the encumbered city roads.