In Chittagong city people continue to suffer getting around town, with the Chittagong Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (CWasa) having dug up vast stretches of roads for laying pipelines around the city.
The water supply authority has decided to repair the ages old pipeline and lay new pipelines, for which roads in 20 major spots in the city will be dug.
With this project starting in November, 650 km of old pipelines will be repaired and 50,000 new pipes will be laid. The project is scheduled to end in March, 2020.
Chittagong City Corporation Mayor AJM Nasir Uddin expressed frustration and said the CWasa is causing great inconvenience to citizens with their excavation projects on city roads.
The mayor made the remarks on Tuesday, speaking at the 49th general meeting of the corporation at Theatre Institute Chittagong in the city.
Already suffering from traffic congestion and no space for pedestrians to use, the development activity has narrowed down major roads and is disrupting traffic even more, he added.
Visiting the construction sites, this correspondent found the roads were dug up at Gate no 2 of Jamal Khan Momin Road and the Nandan Kanon area in the city. The road from Goni Bakery to Jamal Khan was also blocked by the digging.
CWasa Managing Director (MD) AKM Fazlullah said it was not possible to implement development projects without causing a little bit of inconvenience.
"We are digging up the roads with permission from the city corporation authorities. These pipelines should have been laid 20 years ago. People in the city will stand to benefit once the project is completed," he said.
Responding to a query, he said sometimes the same road had to be dug several times to repair ruptures in the pipelines.
“The CWasa could supply approximately 31.7 million gallons of water a decade ago. Now we will have the capacity to supply approximately 95.1 million gallons of water.
"With this initiative, we will be able to add approximately 36.9 million gallons of water to the existing supply from next year,” said the CWasa MD.
Urban planners said that lack of coordination between utility service agencies is adding to the woes of the citizens of Chittagong city.
Ashique Imran, an urban planner, said the service providers did not take into account the people's suffering in implementing these projects.
“Commuting on many of the city streets has become a real ordeal because of all the road diggings. Sometimes the same roads are dug up several times. To make matters worse, the dug up roads are left unattended for weeks at a stretch.
"Utility service providers should implement these projects taking public suffering into consideration,” added the urban planner.