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4 Utility Agencies Digging Roads No respite in two months

M Abul Kalam Azad and Wasim Bin Habib
Moving around many of the city streets has become a real ordeal for people as the utility service providers are digging roads right before the monsoon and leaving the trenches and ditches unrepaired for
weeks and even for months.
Heaps of dug-up mud, bricks and brick-chips, sand and large sewer pipes are found occupying both sides of many streets, narrowing down the thoroughfares and obstructing traffic movement.
With the monsoon approaching, hassles of the dwellers of a city,
which is already ridden with unbearable traffic congestion and a lack of space for pedestrians, are likely to aggravate as the repair work is going on in a sluggish pace.
In some cases, roads dug up have been found unattended for weeks.
Worse still, none could say for sure when the sufferings would be
over. However, the way the agencies are carrying out the jobs suggests at least a couple of months more will be needed to complete the repairs.
Four agencies - Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa), two city corporations, Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Ltd
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(BTCL), Dhaka Electricity Supply Company (Desco) and Titas Gas Company Ltd - have been engaged in digging the thoroughfares and alleys in different parts of the capital for installing sewage pipes and water lines, electricity lines, fibre optics and gas links for the last couple of months.
Though the city corporations claim that all the digging activities were supposed to end by April 30 to save people from their sufferings during the monsoon, the ground reality is starkly different.
The Banani footbridge recently drew public attention as it was fitted with escalators to attract pedestrians to use the bridge instead of jaywalking. However, reaching the steps of the escalator itself has become an ordeal for people as the road right beside it has been dug by Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and the dug-up soil, sand and bricks have been dumped on the adjacent pavement.
“We are struggling everyday to get to the footbridge. We have to cross huge piles of earth. It has become more difficult now as the earth-piles have become slippery due to rains in the last two days," said Salma Akhter, a garment worker of Banani area, yesterday.
The entire road stretching between Kakoli and the Setu Bhaban at Mohakhali is in a similar sorry state.
The Wasa could not finish installing a sewer line in a lane of Indira Road even one and a half months into its beginning.
"The condition of the road is so
bad that I could not take my car to my house in the last one month. I have been parking my car at a relative’s house in Dhanmondi," said Abu Raihan Majumdar, a resident of the area.
One of these correspondents visited the road yesterday but found none from the Wasa to talk to.
Asimilar situation prevails on the stretch between the Saarc fountain and the intersection near Eastern Plaza.
Digging began on the Pallabi to Duaripara road on May 7 for setting up a storm drainage system of the Wasa and it will continue for at least three months, according to the labourers working at the site.
The Wasa is carrying out similar activities on the Gulshan link road and almost all the roads of Tejgaon Industrial Area.
In Dhanmondi, new excavations are popping up in different spots every day. On Road 9/A yesterday, labourers were found busy digging a new hole right beside an old one which had apparently been filled hastily with large brick chunks and sand and had not been levelled properly.
At least one more such ditch was found at Dhanmondi 12/A intersection. The ditch, dug reportedly by the Wasa, had been there for over a month, severely obstructing peakhourtraffic, locals said.
The BTCL is also active in digging roads for laying cables in different areas of the capital, including Karwan Bazar, Indira Road, Gulshan, Fakirerpool and Ramna.
A part of the busy Mirpur road in
Mohammadpur area was dug a couple of weeks back for installing an ll,000KV power line. It was not filled till yesterday.
Diggings were also made at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar and on Humayun Road in Mohammadpur for the same reason, but the trenches have remained unfilled for the last one month.
The roads before Baitul Muqarram mosque, Asad Gate and Moghbazar Wireless areas also remain in dilapidated conditions as the ditches, dug for different purposes, have not been filled yet.
Meanwhile, the Wasa authority has denied that it is carrying out any diggingat the moment.
"It's the city corporation which is working now,” said SDM Kamrul Alam Chowdhury, deputy managing director (operation and maintenance) of the Wasa.
Contacted, Ansar Ali Khan, chief executive officer of the DNCC, said all the digging activities should have been over by April 30.
"Some of the agencies are doing the work without our permission," he said, in clear denial of the Wasa official's claim.
This lack of coordination is what the experts blame for the chaotic situation.
"Urban development should be done in a planned and coordinated way, which is not happening, unfortunately," urban expert Prof Nazrul Islam toldThe Daily Star.
The agencies do not even take responsibility to complete their jobs, he said, adding that the institutions seemed “not bothered" about public sufferings.