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No repair of Boubazar Road for eight years

Helemul Alam
It is quite a common scene on Boubazar Road on the capital's fringe that a number of auto-rickshaws are always lining on its either side. They are neither calling for any passengers nor are stuck in a traffic jam but waiting to be repaired.
About 50 auto-rickshaws ply the two-kilometre road connecting the Jurain Crossing in the capital and Baraitala in Narayanganj's Shymapur every day. But half of the vehicles always remain out of order due to potholes and a thick layer of mud on the road, which has been left without any repair for eight years.
The road is so muddy that vehicles frequently break down here, said Mohammad Mozammel, driver of an auto-rickshaw, who was repairing a broken wheel by the road. "More dangerous are the bare stones hidden under the mud,” he said.
During a recent visit, this correspondent found that the tarred-surface had worn away and a lot of potholes had been created all over the road. It gets waterlogged even after a light rain and becomes almost unusable for pedestrians and vehicles.
The road, which is an important bypass for a huge traffic from Dhaka to Narayanganj, was constructed in 2004. It has not been repaired once since then.
The auto-rickshaw driver Mozammel said his vehicle broke down twice in the last two days, costing him Tk 1,200 to repair it when he earned only Tk 600 within that time.
Local businessmen claim that they had been incurring loss due to the shabby condition of the road. Around 1,000 businessmen having shops on the two sides of the road are the worst sufferers. Their sales have fallen by
a huge margin and cost for goods transport has almost doubled.
Billal Hossain, owner of Shihab Store, a department shop by the road, said he suffered a loss of around Tk 5,000 ten days ago when a rickshaw-van carrying goods for his shop overturned after stumbling on a pothole.
He said 70 percent of their sales had dropped over the last one year due to the rundown road as customers did not want to come there. “We could sell goods worth Tk 30,000 every day. The daily sale now has dropped toTk5,000," he said.
Mohammad Selim Reza, a member of Shyampur Union Parishad, said a huge project was necessary to repair the road and it was not possible for the UP to carry out the work. “We have requested the local lawmaker several times to repair the road. She has given us assurance of renovating it soon,” he said.
Poor drainage system and a lack of maintenance have multiplied the suffering of people.
Asked about regular cleaning of the gutters, the UP member said they did not have the capacity to do it regularly, and therefore they did it every six months.
A nearby canal used to play a major role for receding of rainwater, but it has been so narrowed down over the years that it now causes waterlogging on the road, he said, adding that the canal should be excavated on an urgent basis to save the road.
Sanjida Khanam, lawmaker of the area (Dhaka-4), told The Daily Star that a tender had been floated to repair the road and the Tk 1.05 crore works would begin soon.
The repair work, however, is yet to begin.