The road woes of port city

Tagore does not relate the stories of deprivation and indifference that these two things (the steps and the road) suffer in the hands of human beings.

Unlike Tagore, however, we want to bring to the authority's notice the untold miseries of the roads of Chittagong. As rains have hit hard the port city over the last two weeks from June 7 to June 21 to be exact, all major roads have been getting inundated several times a day.

During the incessant rain, days in days out, they have literally become waterways, making some car owners rather long for a boat ride than use their cars.

In a lash of heavy downpour the great Viswa Road goes under water at as many as 50 points, and heavy tides of water rush over the road from one side to the other. Vehicles of all sorts have to draw to a stop against this flood swelling above the wheels in a minute.

The road between GEC More and Bahaddarhat experiences intense flooding during the rain, and the point where the water shoots up at waist level is just in front of N. Mohd. Plastic Chair Factory near Bahaddarhat. Another vulnerable spot is just off the Bahaddarhat intersection toward Kalurghat. This is simply unbelievable that though the road at this juncture is bordered on each side by a pair of wide drains, still in the face of this wrath of nature. They should be filled up and overflow the road so quickly.

On June 7, it was quite after dark when the rain broke out for the first time in the season. At first, people took it for a light nor'westerly storm soon to pass by. But cracking thunder and dazzling lightning accompanied by heavy drizzle and gusty wind soon turned the nature apocalyptic, and thousands of people and hundreds of vehicles got trapped in the rising flood.

One had to be physically present there to see how the two-lane broad road between Muradpur and Bahaddarhat turned into a river of surging water mocking the cars, micros, lorries, maxis and tempos that stood motionless in the rain.

Should the road masters not come out in rains and see which parts of the city roads get inundated and do something thereafter to prevent the repetition of the road flood?