Indiscriminate road digging in different strategic points in the city before the Eid festival tremendously intensified traffic congestion causing immense sufferings to the city dwellers. The gridlock, which is an everyday chaos, has taken a serious turn due to uncoordinated road digging by different utility service-providing agencies amid the ongoing construction of mega infrastructures - elevated express way, metro rail and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) which have already occupied substantial space on the streets.
During a visit on Tuesday this correspondent found uncoordinated digging on the streets in the heart of the city’s commercial hub - Motijheel area. Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (DWASA) was seen digging road from old Balaka Bhaban to Jiban Bima Bhaban in the areas where many of the roads seemed partially blocked forcing long rows of vehicles moving at snail’s pace.
According to experts and city commuters, the absence of coordination among the agencies implementing development projects has brought the city traffic to its knees apart from flushing public money down the drain. The city usually starts witnessing severe traffic congestion more than two weeks after the beginning of the month of Ramadan, but the situation has now turned terribly worse than ever.
Many roads in the capital have become almost unfit for traffic movement as they virtually remain blocked from sludge picked and stockpiled on the roadside. Vehicles running on these roads take long time to reach destinations due to traffic jam. Ahead of the Eid festival, indiscriminate car parking is also largely evident in front of most of the city shopping malls and markets, which is another reason for the traffic tangle. Most of the commercial buildings lack parking facilities forcing commuters to park their cars in front of the buildings or occupy empty spaces by the roadside nearby.
