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Jatrabari-Dholaipar Road

Accidents waiting to happen

HelemulAlam
Riddled with potholes, the half a kilometre stretch of Jatrabari-Dholaipar road beside the Jatrabari ramp of Mayor Mohammad Hanif Flyover has become a nightmare for commuters and vehicles.
The battered road poses a great risk of toppling over vehicles plying on it.
"It actually feels like I am on a boat in the sea during a storm," said Omor Faruk, who regularly uses the road to go to his office.
Fatima Nasrin, a BBA student of Bangladesh Islami University and a resident of Shyampur, said she has to use the road to get to her campus, but
the risk of accidents on that part of the road is very high.
About one kilometre long Jatrabari-Dholaipar road, which links the Dhaka-Mawa highway and the road from Postogola to Pagla in Narayanganj, is one of the busiest roads in the capital, according to Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC), the body responsible for maintaining the road.
Several thousand vehicles, both light and heavy, use the road daily to travel between the capital and other areas and districts like Munshiganj, Mawa, Nawabpurand Narayanganj.
Residents of the areas and transport workers said large vehicles like con-
tainer trucks getting stuck in one of the deeper potholes on the road, causing traffic congestion for hours, is a common phenomenon.
They said the situation worsens during rain as the potholes become filled with water, and due to poor drainage system, the whole road gets submerged in water.
"Just the other day, it took several hours to free a van, which had fallen into a pothole filled with water. The driver misjudged the distance between the pothole and the vehicle as it was raining at that time," Mohammad Nayeem, a driver ofTurag Paribahan, a bus on the
Dhaka-Gazipur route.
Workers of human haulers, which ply on the road, said at the beginning of the month, they collectively filled up several potholes through dumping rubbish, spending around Tk 8,000.
However, their effort was futile as the potholes were larger than they thought.
Repair of the half a kilometre road has become a necessity to prevent accidents, and vehicles from being damaged, they said.
Mohammad Monju, a bus driver of Gungun Paribahan on the Jatrabari-Mawa route, said due to the road's extremely battered condition, the bus he drives had been damaged several times just in September alone.
He said the owner spent about Tk 27,000 on repairs.
"I have often thought of quitting my job because it is very difficult to drive on this road. Driving on a busy road like the Dhaka-Mawa highway is better,” he said.
Mamun, who drives a human hauler,
said his income has significantly reduced as it takes more time to make a trip on the battered road.
He said his trips reduced to six from nine per day.
Contacted, Jahangir Alam, chief engineer of DSCC, said they will start repair works on the stretch of the road within a few days, before Eid-ul-Azha.
He further said that the city corporation would set up a 1km drainage line beside the road under a Tk 3 crore project, so that the road does not become submerged in rainy season.