Countless cracks and potholes have made the Gulistan-Jatrabari road, the most important thoroughfare for the people living in the capital’s south, a nightmarish experience for commuters.
Different sections of the road have turned unfit for vehicular movement, causing long tailbacks that stretch to adjoining roads. As a result, almost on a daily basis, school-and office-goers are forced to reach late to their destinations.
Expressing frustration, residents of neighbouring areas said they have so far not seen any noticeable effort from the authorities concerned to ease their sufferings.
Nurjahan, a resident of Faridabad area, said there has been no repair work of the road since the Gulistan-Jatrabari flyover was opened for traffic on October 11, 2013.
Even though the 11.8km-long flyover has helped ease the city’s traffic crisis to some length, the situation has grown only worse for the Gulistan-Jatrabari road that runs parallel below the flyover.
“After the completion of Gulistan-Jatrabari flyover, we thought our sufferings were over; but the potholed road has brought back our misery,” said Harun-or-Rashid, a resident of Jurain.
Minara Khatun, who regularly uses the Gulistan-Jatrabari road to travel from her Gendaria home to her Motijheel office, said: “The road has been lying in a dilapidated state for many months, but we did not see any renovation work on the road during these months.”
Mohammad Ali, a resident of Wari, told the Dhaka Tribune that despite the city now having two mayors, the scenario of the capital remains unchanged.
“We thought the elected mayors will resolve our many problems, but their performances are not better than previous administrators,” he said.
The condition of the road has been made worse by the regular spells of rain in the recent months. The existing potholes get easily filled with rain water, and the inundation further damages the asphalt of the road.
During a visit to the road on Thursday, the Dhaka Tribune found that the driver and passengers of a CNG-run autorickshaw were trying desperately to pull up the vehicle which got stuck in a massive pothole in the middle of the road.
A source at the Dhaka South City Corporation, on condition of anonymity, told the Dhaka Tribune that the absence of any elected representative in the DSCC for such a long time had allowed many roads to turn unfit for vehicular movement.
He, however, said officials at both the south and north city corporations were now working on a plan to solve the problem.
Meanwhile, Kazi Borhan Uddin, the executive engineer for DSCC’s Zone 5, said they have sent a proposal for a development project – which has an estimated cost of around Tk23 crore – to the LGED Ministry for repairing the road stretching from Jatrabari to Joykali Mandir along with other connecting roads.
Saying that the proposal had been sent over two months ago, Borhan added: “We will start the repair work after getting the fund.
“We are now doing some emergency work using bricks on the road to make the road passable for vehicles,” he said.
