Meagre development funds restrain the Dhaka City Corporation from repairing the roads of the capital, say the corporation officials.
The corporation's chief engineer, Abul Hossain, also told New Age recently that they had acute manpower shortage and so were failing to accomplish their work properly.
In the meantime, city dwellers are continuing to complain about the poor conditions of the roads.
'We are living at Goran, near Sipahibagh tempo-stand for about 30 years and this area's roads are always in a bad shape,' said Mohammad Jahangir Chowdhury.
Sabekunnahar, a resident of Jatrabari, told New Age that most of the lanes and by-lanes of her area were dilapidated suggesting that the government had no interest to repair them.
The chief engineer said at present there were 7,500 roads, lanes and by-lanes in the corporation area which were divided into 'primary', 'secondary' and 'local' roads.
He said when it came to repairs, priority was given to the bigger 'primary' roads.
'Every year we receive Tk 300 to Tk 350 crore to repair roads while we need Tk 1,500 to Tk 2,000 crore to repair all the secondary and local lanes and by-lanes and this is why it will never happen.'
Abul Hossain said they received an insufficient budget as the government had to distribute money for other development works.
'I know, in DCC's zone 1, 4 and 7, there are some roads that are in a bad shape,' the officer admitted.
He said that at present they had a project to repair about 100 roads in the city though lanes and by-lanes would not come under the project.
The project titled 'The improvement of damaged roads, drains and footpaths of Dhaka City Corporation', with a budget of Tk 266 crore, is supposed to repair 237 kilometres of roads, drains and footpaths,
The proposal was submitted to the local government ministry on September 2, 2010.
The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council approved the project plan earlier this year and the chief engineer said the implementation work of the project would start hopefully in September.
'It took more than two years in total to approve the project,' said Abul Hossain.
While asked about the open manholes and surface level drains throughout the city, he said for lack of manpower DCC was failing to carry on its duty properly.
'Fifty per cent of posts at the lower level in our department are vacant now,' he said.
Source : New Age
