Pallabi road causing palpable pains

For the last five years walking, let alone riding a vehicle, has been a nightmare over the around one kilometre road stretching from Setar Towar to Pallabi Extension in the capital's Pallabi Sare Egaro, thanks to the authorities concerned for not repairing sections dug up repeatedly for utility works.

Locals say that each time a sewer or water pipe or an electricity cable is installed, the agencies concerned just dumped some earth on the portions that had to be dug up, not even bothering to level it with the rest of the road.

The end result is numerous mounds of earth and potholes, sometimes resembling small craters, scattered everywhere with little or no asphalt remaining, a clear sign of Dhaka North City Corporation's apathy over ensuring smooth travel for the locals.

Drivers who regularly ply the route say it is easy for a vehicle with small wheels to overturn. In the midst a sewer lid is missing near Baitul Aman Pallabi Mosque.

"The lid broke around three months back," said local Anwarul Islam recently. Only a few days back a wheel of a private car got trapped in the hole. Later locals helped pull it out, he said.

The situation worsens during the rains when mud turns into a slippery trap. "I fell on several occasions while going to the mosque and had to return without saying my prayers," said another local Shahjahan.

"Not only me but many others including the president of our area's house owners association also faced the same trouble," he added.

Now the drainage system is being developed but it was not clear whether it will be completed before the monsoon or whether the road will be properly repaired, said Nazmul Hasan, another local.

Nazrul Islam, who takes children to Monipur High School on his rickshaw van, says it was impossible for him to pedal on the road and that he has get down and pull with his hands for most of the road.

"We try to stay seated gripping the iron rods but always feel as if the van will tip over," said class IV student Tasmiya Tabassum Smrity.

DNCC Executive Engineer (zone-2) Mofazzal Hossain said the repairs would come gradually in the next two months as they have already started working on the lanes adjoining the road.