<i>Most of port city roads unfit for traffic</i>
Most of the city roads have become dilapidated due to excessive rainfall. The picture was taken from Madarbari areas.Photo: STAR
Most of the roads and alleys in the port city have become unfit for traffic due to cracks and potholes, causing sufferings to the pedestrians, commuters as well as the drivers. The cracks and potholes developed on the roads due to recent waterlogging and lack of proper maintenance by the authorities concerned. The transport owners are to count additional money for repairing their vehicles due to dilapidated state of the roads. Joynal Hossain, a tempo driver, said it has become tough for them to drive on the dilapidated road and they are to spend additional money for maintenance their vehicles. He said longevity of the vehicles is decreasing day by day due to bad condition of the roads. Mohammad Jahangir, a senior executive of a real estate firm, said he is to pay extra fare to the rickshaw-puller due to the unfit roads. Sometimes they refuse to go even after offering higher fare, he added. Maruf Hossain, a CNG-run auto-rickshaw owner, said the three-wheelers are quite unable to run on the dilapidated roads. He said the roads are repaired on some occasions but returned to their bad shape in few days, increasing further the troubles. The conditions of the roads at Muradpur, Oxygen Intersection, Sholoshohor, Dewanhat, Olanker Intersection, Port Connecting Road, Bohoddarhat, College Road, Jamal Khan, Momin Road, Station Road, Kadamtali, Dhonialapara, Chawk Bazar, Sholok Bahar, Katalganj, Bakalia, New Market, SS Khaled Road, Mehdibag, OR Nizam Road, Pahartali and Bayezid Bostami are beyond description. In such a situation, the Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) has started the repair work of the city roads with a fund of only Tk 24 crore that needs at least Tk 100 crore. Most of the city roads have lost their strength due to frequent waterlogging and only the repair work will not help the roads sustain for long, sources at CCC said. Nizam Uddin Chowdhury, superintendent engineer of Division-2, said the CCC allocated Tk 12 crore for repairing the lanes in 41 wards while Tk 12 crore will be spent for the main thoroughfares. There are 428 bituminous roads, 67 concrete roads, 152 brick soling roads and 118 kucha roads in the city. Abu Saleh, CCC Superintendent Engineer of Division-1, said they will repair the dilapidated roads on the basis of urgency. City corporation allocated the money assessing the condition of the alleys as per advice of the ward commissioners, he said, adding that Tk 100 crore is needed for reconstruction of the city roads. CCC acting Mayor M Manjur Alam told The Daily Star that due to fund constraint they could not start the repair work at a time. He said CCC gets around Tk 300 crore as revenue from different organisations like Chittagong Port Authority (CPA), Chittagong Development Authority (CDA), Railway Authority and others. After getting the revenues they will start the work in full swing, he said, adding that they are now doing the repair work on the basis of importance and condition of the roads and alleys.
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