Shawdesh desk:

Indiscriminate digging of busy roads and thoroughfares in the capital for development work is disrupting free movement of vehicles and causing immense sufferings for commuters.

As soon as an agency completes the work on a road, another agency starts digging it, city-dwellers said.

During a visit to Kamalapur, Motijheel, Malibagh Chowdhurypara and Tejgaon areas, it was found that WASA and other utility service providers dug big holes on the roads.

Commuters, mostly school-and office-goers, suffer a lot while going to their destinations for the severe traffic jams caused by road digging.

Because of the dilapidated and dug roads, vehicles move slowly and rickshaws often fall aside with passengers.

“We can’t move freely due to huge mud on the roads and the condition becomes worse during the rainy season,” many a resident said.

Abul Hashem, a resident of Gopibagh area, said, “I have to go regularly to Kakrail Wills Little Flowers School along with my kid via Kamalapur. On Sunday, we had an accident because our rickshaw fell into a hole dug by the WASA.”

Like Kamalapur areas, it is also difficult to travel to many other areas in the capital due to the sorry state of the roads.

The existing work for the metro rail line linking Dhaka’s north edge to the south is also responsible for the traffic jams in the capital.

One side of the Kamalapur main road stretching from TTpara crossing to Kamalapur railway station, several busy roads in Tejgaon industrial belt remained off for many days due to the construction work.

Moshiur Rahman, a resident of Kamalapur area, alleges that workers of Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) have been digging and cutting this busy road for setting up a sewerage line for long.

As one side of the main road has remained off for long, severe traffic congestion is created on other side, causing untold sufferings for commuters, he added.

Like Kamalapur, many other busy roads in the capital also remained closed for a long time due to the ongoing road development work, causing severe traffic congestion and sufferings for commuters.

Besides this, the first metro-rail network construction work is going ahead in full steam from Uttara to Motijheel via Mirpur, Farmgate and Shahbagh, tormenting the capital’s 10 million-plus inhabitants and turning the air toxic.

The potholes created due to the metro rail project have made things worse on Rokeya Sarani from Mirpur 10 to Agargaon. Many vehicles take the 60 Feet Road or cantonment areas to avoid Rokeya Sarani, spreading the gridlocks.

From Malibagh to Mouchak, the authorities have dug the street to set up underground electric cables, narrowing the space for vehicles to move and increasing pressure on the flyover in the area. Commuters who use the route say they remain stuck for a long time in a traffic jam every day.

On Mirpur Road, sewerage lines are being laid out from Asadgate to Shyamoli, with the holes heavily hampering traffic.

Holes dug for sewer lines on Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmad Road from Satrasta to Love Road traffic signal have also caused a similar trouble in Tejgaon. The tailbacks in the area sometimes stretch to Moghbazar and Ramna.

The work to set up sewer lines from Lalbagh’s Chowdhury Bazar to Azimpur is creating traffic jams in the area for a long time.

“Gridlocks have always been there due to the pressure of traffic. Now the roads are dug,” said Hakim, who drives a bus on Banasree-Mohammadpur route.

“We get stuck in congestion for at least half an hour at every traffic signal. It’s unbearable!” said another bus driver, Rubel.

A police sergeant working at Mouchak blamed a lack of coordination among the government agencies for the worsening situation.

“One organisation digs the street after another, making traffic jams a never-ending problem.”

When contacted, DSCC superintending engineer (civil) Munshi Md Abul Hashem said on Monday, “We’re conducting renovation work of drainage in different areas, including Kamalapur, to resolve water logging problems in the capital. When a development is carried out, we need to excavate but it is for the well being of the people.”

He further said they would complete the development work soon to reduce the sufferings of the city people.