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Tk 1,600cr needed to repair city roads

Staff Corresponded
The city fathers need at least Tk 1,600 crore to repair the roads and intersections damaged by floods in Dhaka and its suburbs, said Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) Mayor Sadek Hossain Khoka yesterday at a meeting.
Elaborating the urgency of the road repairs at the sixth meeting of Dhaka Transport Coordination Board (DTCB) in the city, the mayor said, "We already have requested the World Bank to provide us aid to cany
out the repairs and oilier post-flood rehabilitation. We hope their response wil 1 be positive."
The DTCB proposed to use the unspent money of Dhaka Urban TYansport Project (DUTP), financed by the World Bank, for the post-flood rehabilitation and reconstruction work. Towards this end, the project period would be extended up to June 30, 2005 from the present deadline of December 30, 2004, the meeting resolved.
The WB representative to DTCB, Mohiuzzaman Quazi, said they
would consider the requests but advised the DUTP to go for longterm planning, besides solving the immediate problems.
The intersections most affected by flooding include Shapla Square, those on Road 41 and 37 in Gulshan, Green Road, Topkhana Road and Suhrawardi Avenue, and at Fakirapool, Kakrail, Rajarbagh and Malibagh.
The roads that are spoiled most include Jatrabari Road, Baridhara Park Road and Baridhara UN Road, and the road-sections from Arong to Baily Bridge, Baily Bridge to Gulshan-1, Saidabad to Rampura, Shapla Square to Fakirapool Intersection, Dainik Bangla to Fakirapool Intersection, Gulshan-1 to Amtoli, Malibagh to Rajarbagh, Rajarbagh to Kamalapur, Kamalapur to Motijheel, and Shantinagar to AGB Colony.
The board also discussed the progress and status of various projects on roads, traffic signals, bus terminals, flyovers, strategic transport planning, and phasing out manual vehicles from some city roads.
A meeting source said the Mohakhali flyover would be completed by June 30. But he expressed concern over the structures built by squatters on Bangladesh Railway land adj acent to the flyover.
The condition of Airport Road under the flyover is in so bad a shape that it wears the vehicles as well as increases fuel and maintenance costs, he added.
Most of the traffic signals on Mirpur Road are in disorder, reported the Traffic Police representative in the meeting, which makes it tough for them to control traffic. It also raises the danger of accidents, he added.
The DTCB last year launched a Tk 14-crore project to install automatic traffic signalling system at 59 points on the city streets.
Sources said the DTCB is now in the process of developing long-term in Dhaka City transport plans for the next five, 10 and 20 years.