The above is not to say that this writer is not fully appreciative of much developmental works accomplished by the present government in Bangladesh under its tenures. From timely distribution of text books to millions of children to augmenting power production and taking on the dream Padma Bridge project with country’s own resources, one has to reasonably take note of the wide ranging long list of developmental achievements under this government.
Nonetheless, the question that looms large in many minds today is :whether there is a missing element of all round accomplishments despite the taking on of so many projects and marking progress on them in varying degrees. For example, let us see the attainments in relation to the Mayor Hanif flyover, the country’s biggest one so far that was opened to traffic in 2013. It has played a part no doubt in easing entry into Dhaka from adjacent townships and beyond. But is this flagship infrastructure delivering optimally ?
As it is only about one-fourth of its potential users are actually using it long after its opening to traffic because the rest consider the charges or tolls of using it as too high. The matter has not been solved even though a long time has passed since its official gala opening.
And the roads on the two sides beneath this flyover leave a lot desired. Full of potholes or even ditches in some places, these have practically become an irritant for vehicles operators whohardly have the choice of an alternative and only curse any authority they can think of for their suffering on this score. Following the formal opening of this flyover, the roads below it were carpeted or seemingly well paved. But within six months, the roads started crumbling and the process continues.
Here we have several points to ponder. A major infrastructure is built at huge costs but instead of its delivering on large scale to its users, its use remains limited as a result of lack of decisiveness on the part of its operators in resolving the toll issue that frustrates spreading the benefit of using it to the greatest number. Secondly, the broken down roads under it are regularly creating exasperating traffic jams .Indeed, this flyover could be a model, an example of well rounded erecting of an infrastructure that on completion starts providing all round sustainable benefits on a lasting basis.
People in ordinary walks of life and they are the majority, they care or perhaps understand little about gross increases to the GDP, industrialization of the northern region and other benefits to accrue from the building of the Padma Bridge. They form their evaluation of the administration usually from what handsdown improvement or otherwise they see and experience in their immediate surroundings. In this sense, life of the millions of residents in the capital city today is one of much helplessness.
Tales of bad roads and growing sufferings of commuters in the capital city are unending and adding chapters of further worse conditions every day. Dilapidated roads extend from Malibagh Rail Gate to Chowdhurypara, MalibaghMor to Rajarbagh, and from MalibaghMor to Maghbazar to Hatirjheel. Tattered road condition are found at Rampura, Tejgaon, Shantinagar, Tejgaon, Postogola, Wari, Khilgaon, Mugda, Bashabo, Kamalapur, Syedabad, Jatrabari, Demra, Dholpur, Matuail, Shyampur, Mohakhali and other parts.
Life on these roads, mostly potholed, bereft of bitumen cover and unprecedentedly crammed, turns into a new mess each morning as people come out of homes, going to work where they routinely fail to arrive on time due to hours lost on the way due to traffic jams caused by such battered road conditions.
Dhaka’s traffic jams eat up about Tk 550 billion every year, said experts in this field. The estimated loss is now 50% more than what it was in 2010, said the team leader of a study carried out to assess the financial loss in traffic congestion.The study jointly conducted by the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) and Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport Bangladesh, said that the cost of traffic congestion in capital Dhaka is around Tk 1 billion a day.
Yet, life goes by as usual in this vast city of over16 million people, as per conservative estimates. The administration and two city Mayors, meanwhile, keep telling the exhausted and exasperated residents that remedy is ahead, just around the corner, and to be patient.
Many crores of Taka have been simply drained away several times in installing automatic traffic signaling systems just to be given up and go back to manual signaling again. Who accounts for such gross misspending of taxpayers’ money? None.
Dhaka acquired the appearance of a flooded city in the last rainy season pointing to its dysfunctional drainage system. Water logging on such a scale and intensity was never before seen in Dhaka pointing to where the priorities in planning and expenditure should be.