Badly-built roads give in
The potholed
and dilapidated roads in Manikganj like roads in other places of the country need
urgent repair
Many roads in the Manikganj districts rural areas where the watchful eye rarely visits are in bad shape, but well-paved roads are as important for the urban areas as they are for the rural areas, for smooth commuting of people as well as transportation of business items including agricultural products. For lack of repairing of most of roads in Manikganj, people in the relevant areas are hugely suffering. Business here is being hampered. All kind of people including students, office goers and patients in particular are suffering the most. If someone visits the districts seven upzilas, he will find the same picture: rundown roads, filled with potholes, are hampering all kinds of transportation.
It is not that these roads were built long ago, and due to much use they have come to their present condition. According to a report of this newspaper Sunday, dilapidated roads, covering some 100 kilometres, stretch across Manikganjs seven upazilas. At least 20 newly-built or repaired roads in rural areas had been damaged within a year, with carpeting on most of them wearing off. This means that these roads are not constructed and repaired as they should have been.
It should be mentioned that here in Bangladesh when a budget is made for constructing a road, the budget is made for constructing a class-one road. There is a perception among the people that even half of the fund in Bangladesh is not used for making the road, the rest of the money goes to the pocket of relevant people involved in the construction at different stages. When one sees the condition of newly-constructed roads in Bangladesh after a year of their construction, the broken condition of the roads reinforces this belief.
Bangladeshs road infrastructure has developed as a whole compared to that of even the last decade: new pucca roads have been built and many fresh areas have been brought within communication network, triggering balancing of urban and rural economy. But if the new roads were strongly built with spending the budget as allocated, it would have been a real boon. The potholed and dilapidated roads in Manikganj like roads in other places of the country need urgent repair, but the relevant authorities must ensure that fund of the repair work as well as construction of new roads all over the country is all properly spent. If that cannot be done, quality road infrastructure for Bangladesh will never be achieved.
