With the monsoon approaching, Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) has permitted different utility service providers to dig up 12,601 square metres of street surface, which is likely to make city dwellers suffer.
Different service providers, especially Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa),havealreadystarted theirdigging.
DCC officials said the DCC on January 29, through one stop service cell, gave permissions to Dhaka Wasa, Dhaka Power Distribution Company Ltd, Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Ltd, Bangla Link, Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Ltd and other individuals to dig up the roads and do repair and installation work.
Dhaka Wasa has been digging roads in Gendaria, Segunbagicha near Anti-Corruption Commission office, Azimpur, Asad Gate, Taj Mahal Road, Iqbal Road and Shah Suri Road and in Uttara.
Traffic chaos has become a common phenomenon in those areas. Movement on those roads is now risky since they are now narrower and they become slippery when wet, locals said. A number of locals of those areas com-
plained of respiratory problems caused by dust in the air.
Wasa, however, said they are causing suffer ings to city dwellers for a certain period of time to relieve them of water-logging and sewerage problems in future.
Papiya, guardian of Taki, a class-Ill student of St Joseph's Higher Secondary’ School near Asad Gate, said they face huge traffic jams even-day caused by the road digging.
"It takes almost one hour to come to school or return home in Adabar," she said, adding that it is almost twice the usual time required
Shirin Akhtar, mother of Sadid and lima of the same school, said she along with her kids have to walk almost half a km to and from school every’ day. Getting a rickshaw has also become very difficult in this road, she added.
Mizanur Rahman, a resident of Iqbal Road, said Dhaka Wasa has been working there for over the last one month.
Amir Hossain, contractor of the Wasa job, said it would take a month more to dig the road, work in the sewerage lines and cover the surface.
Asad Gate-Mohammadpur Road, Iqbal Road. Shah Suri Road and Taj Mahal Road are being dug up in Mohammadpur area. Locals of Satish Sarkar Road, DIT plot of Gendaria, are also facing difficulties as digging work has been going on in almost all the entrances and exits of the area.
Badsha, a local, said, "We know the work is going on to improve our lives but the ways are not good. They dig up a really long stretch of road at once putting us in difficulty."
Deputy Managing Director (Research Planning and Development) ofWasa Liakat Ali said they were digging the roads near Asad Gate and Gendaria to set up sewerage lines.
Around 16km of sewerage lines will be set up or reinstalled in the areas, including Japan Garden City and Asad Gate via Iqbal Road, Taj Mahal Road and Dhupkhola to Loharpool via Sadhana and Satis Sarkar Road.
The work is being done under a Tk 18.47 crore Interim Emergency Construction and Rehabilitation of Sewerage Line project that started last year, he said.
"We started work at a time in different areas as we have to complete the work by June 2009, the scheduled time for the project to end," he said, adding, "The permission of road digging from Dhaka City Corporation does not allow us to work after May."
A Wasa official said Wasa is now setting up around six-km-long storm sewerage lines in different areas of Uttara which is part of a 25-krn long storm sewerage line. It would take around a month more to complete.
Water-logging is a major problem in Uttara during the rainy season and after the entire drainage system is completed, the water-logging problem will be solved, hesaid.
An executive engineer of DCC said according to the guidelines of one stop service cell, repair of a road, which has been dug up, has to be done within three days but they cannot do it in time as it takes 15 to one month, in some cases more, for the dug up earth to harden.