Under-construction roads in Savar add to commuters' woes
Construction material kept on Savar bus stand-Genda Bazar road severely obstructs vehicle movement
On Thursday night, truck driver Zahirul Islam's vehicle wheel fell into a hole and got stuck for hours on the road in the Savar bus stand area, where a road development project is going on.
Zahirul said many drivers like him cannot see the potholes on the road from Savar bus stand to Genda Bazar area, which is being upgraded from four-lane to eight-lane, as a thick cloud of dust erupting from the construction work hovers over it all the time. This often causes accidents and severe traffic jams in the area.
The Roads and Highways Department (RHD) has been upgrading the Savar bus stand-Genda Bazar road under a project to develop several parts of the Dhaka-Aricha highway.
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The developing agency has dug holes to install dividers on the highway, and many of them lie open, posing threats to vehicles plying on the under-construction road.
Besides, various construction materials have been kept on half a kilometre of road in Genda Bazar. The soil dug up for building drains and other construction work has also been kept on the road for months, blocking some lanes on the highway. As a result, vehicles have been struggling to move along the partially open road.
Moreover, the work to make footbridges with iron sheets is going on at several spots on the road, obstructing pedestrian and vehicle movement.
Shakhawat, a shopkeeper in Genda Bazar, told The Business Standard, "It has been about a month and a half since the drain construction work started and the soil has been left on the road."
"The area is covered in dust as the soil spreads on the road. People do not come to my store, there is no sale. So, most of the time I keep the shop closed," he added.
Abul Mansoor, a resident of the area, told TBS that the road construction work has been going on for around two years. There is almost always a long tailback on the road and accidents frequently occur at night.
The development of the Dhaka-Aricha highway is scheduled to end in May this year. The work of upgrading the road to eight-lane, and constructing U-loop and footbridges have already been completed in several places, said sources at the Roads and Highways Department.
Regarding people's suffering in the area, RHD Sub-divisional Engineer (Kallayanpur) Md Maruf Hasan told TBS, "We need to close the whole road to work there, which is not possible. So we have to finish work on one side of the road and open it for vehicles and start working on the other side."
Besides, piles of soil have been removed from several places on the road, he said, adding that about 75% of the work has been completed and it will be almost done within the next three months.
Savar Municipality Executive Engineer Md Shariful Imam told TBS, "We have informed the RHD about the people's sufferings several times. They have listened to us in some cases, but not all the time. We have even stopped the work in some places but that is a government agency, so we cannot force them."
"Besides, dust is everywhere, yet our municipality cannot do much about it," he added.
Photos were camptured by Md Jahidul Islam
