The death trap in the road of Bangladesh. The name of the suffering of the working people and the common people is the twenty mile-jirabo road of Savar. For a long time the road was full of big potholes. As soon as it rains a little, the road sinks. Occasionally rickshaws, vans and autorickshaws overturn on this road. Private cars and freight covered vans are stuck. As it is an industrial area, millions of people commute through this road every day, but no initiative has been taken to repair the road. Many people are falling and getting injured without knowing it due to the accumulation of water in these holes. Valuables including clothes are being destroyed. Since then, the situation is the same all over the road. Accidents are constantly happening in at least 15-20 places of the road including Kathgarh Bazar, Pukurpar, Jirabo due to similar dilapidated condition. Dangerous places in the middle of the road have been marked with bamboo somewhere. But no work is being done in that. Besides, in the broken place of the busiest road, the car on one side has to stand for a long time. Due to the traffic jam and waterlogging in the ditches, the working people could not reach the office on time. On the other hand, the road became monotonous due to the lack of drainage system for drainage. Advocate Shafiq Dewan, a local resident of Kuturia village, complained that the road has been lowered due to the construction of large factories and businesses on both sides of the road. As a result, due to lack of drainage system, the road was submerged in light rain and it is getting damaged quickly. Monir Hossain, a resident of Jirabo Pukurpar village, said, “We are ashamed of the condition of the road as we are a government party.” I can’t wait to tell you how much people suffer every day. People are ashamed of our road, what does your MP, chairman do? Nur Alam, swing operator of Azmat Group, said that an autorickshaw overturned due to a hole in the road in front of Kathgarh Bazar. There were other passengers in the car, including a child and a woman. One woman broke her leg in the accident and others took her to hospital. The baby with her also fell into the water and covered her whole body with mud. We rescued him and rushed him to the hospital. Thus, every day autorickshaws overturn at different places on the road and accidents happen.
He added that trucks, covered vans and other large vehicles are sometimes stuck in the big holes in the Amtala area. That is why this road is always congested. We also travel to the office with a lot of difficulty. Due to the broken road, I could not get an auto for a long time and I was late for the office to walk in the muddy water.
Lal Chan, a grocer at Amtala Market, said people have been suffering for a long time as the road has been bad. The vehicles are stuck on the road causing traffic jam. Business is slowing down as people are unable to come to the shops due to the dilapidated condition of the roads. If the government takes the matter seriously and fixes the road, we will benefit a lot. Garment worker Ziaur Rahman said, I could have come to the office from home in 10 minutes before. Now I can’t come to the office on time even with more time due to the road. Another worker Shahadat Hossain also said the same thing. He said it was too late to reach the factory due to lack of auto at the time allotted for lunch. Besides, when men and women go out at the same time during office holidays, many people get injured after falling into a hole in the road due to the crowd.
Mohammad Ali Sarkar, a member of Ward No. 1 of Ashulia Union, said, “People have been abusing us for a long time due to the dilapidated condition of the Bishmile-Jirabo road.” Since the road is under the supervision of LGED, nothing can be done on such a big road with little funding from the Union Parishad. Even then I have personally laid some bricks in my constituency. I wanted to throw some more bricks after that but the upazila engineer gave me time to start the work so I didn’t throw any more bricks.
Asked about this, Ashulia Union Parishad Chairman Alhaj Shahab Uddin said, “I threw rubbish several times due to ditches along the five-kilometer road but it didn’t help much.” However, the Upazila Engineer has been informed about the matter and has been repeatedly urged to repair the road.
When asked, Saleh Hasan Pramanik, an engineer of Savar Upazila Parishad, said that the people have been suffering due to the dilapidated condition of the road for a long time. We are working with the issue in mind. In the meantime, an estimate (demand letter) of Tk 9 crore has been sent to the district office for repairing the road. The road will be repaired very soon after getting permission and allocation from there.