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Tk 79cr goes down the drain

Fresh move to spend Tk 20 crore to repair rundown road under Hanif flyover

M Abul Kaiam Azad and Mahbubur Rahman Khan
The Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) spent Tk 72 crore to repair the dilapidated road under the Mayor Hanif flyover amid public outcry and sufferings during rainy season last year.
The DSCC also put up another Tk 7-crore project for development of a drainage system to put an end to waterlogging on the road.
Although the entire sum has already been paid to the contractors, the road remains in the same dreadful state. Many potholes along with mud and waterlogging at different points have made the road a hazardous one following days of rain.
The road is in such a rickety condition that private cars cannot use it. Larger vehicles like buses and trucks still ply it but bump constantly and so hard that it is very difficult for passengers to remain in their seats. During a visit, vehicles were even seen hitting the road divider.
In many cases, vehicles break down after falling in deep potholes.
"We have to be very tactful while crossing the road. 1 find it very difficult to control my bus as I try to avoid the potholes," said a driver of Shikor Paribahan.
People walking along the road also feel the pinch of it. Often, their clothes get stained with dirty water.
The road had earlier been left in a poor state during construction of the flyover. Its poor condition, however, remained the same since the flyover opened for public in October 2013.
Sources in Nagar Bhaban said development works were carried out following a number of meetings involving officials of the DSCC, LGRD ministry and police before Eid-ul-Azha last year.
Before that a team from the traffic department of Dhaka Metropolitan Police led by the then additional commissioner (traffic) Mili Biswas visited the road, took photographs and held a meeting with the DSCC top officials.
Even a senior official of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) visited the road to see its condition and later pressed for its quick repair. Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader had also expressed his dissatisfaction over the poor condition of the road.
But all those proved futile.
DSCC officials in the meantime are not sitting idle. They have recently initiated another move to repair the road, involvingTk 20 crore this time.
"Soon a tender of the work will be floated," said an engineer at Zone-5 of DSCC located at Sayedabad.
But many believe the money would go down the drain this time as well.
Speaking anonymously, a number of mid-ranking officials at Nagar Bhaban said the development works were done only on papers.
“The lion's share of the Tk 79 crore has been misappropriated without doing any work," one of them said, adding, the fund was more than enough to properly develop the entire road under the flyover from Palashi to Jatrabari and its drainage system.
The official said one of the contractors did some development work on the road between Gulistan and Jatrabari with little impact.
“This is just one of countless examples of how syndicates of officials and
contractors plunder money in the name of implementing development projects,” another engineer said, asking not to be identified.
As allegations of misappropriating fund surfaced late last year, an inquiry was initiated to detect how the money was spent.
The Anti-Corruption Commission collected documents of the road and drainage development works and also took statements of the officials concerned to begin the probe.
Bu the inquiry stumbled halfway for mysterious reasons.
The Daily Star correspondents yesterday went to the offices of Chief Executive Officer Ansar Ali Khan, Chief Engineer Habibur Rahman and Additional Chief Engineer Nurul Amin and tried to get their versions, but the top officials were "busy" with meetings.
These correspondents also tried to contact them by phone. The chief engineer received the phone in the afternoon only to shrug off his responsibility by saying, "I wasn't in charge when the development works were implemented last year."
He suggested contacting Zone-5 of the DSCC to get information about the contractors and how much money they got.
When a correspondent went to the zonal office, he was informed that the person who keeps record files was not available.