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Rains leave port city roads potholed

Waterlogging adds to public woes


Our Correspondent | Friday, 12 July 2019


CHATTOGRAM, July 11: Torrential rainfalls this monsoon have left a good number of roads and alleys in the port city battered, much to the inconvenience of their users.
Cracks and potholes have developed at long stretches of the roads due to the impact of downpour, causing immense suffering to the pedestrians, commuters as well as the drivers.
Besides, the situation has added to the woes the city residents face for the perennial water-logging problem during the rainy season.
People's sufferings mount this time as water-logging causes intense damage to the road network of the port city.
According to locals, the city's water-logging situation has aggravated due to faulty drainage system following heavy showers.
Almost all the low-lying areas go under water if the city experiences torrential rainfall.
Rainwater regularly submerges the city streets overflowing the drains, because most of the drains were silted up heavily causing disruption in normal discharge of water.
As a result, vehicles run with high risk as the condition of roads became deplorable in the rains last week.
Big ditches, damaging of carpets and lack of renovation works and continuous downpour last week made the roads very rough and risky.
Sources said vehicle owners have to count additional money for repairing their vehicles due to dilapidated state of the roads.
Vehicle owners alleged that there was no maintenance work of the roads by the Chattogram City Corporation (CCC) or Chattogram Development Authority (CDA) in the current rainy season.
As a result, the bricks and pitches of maximum roads in the city have gone damaged.
Moreover, ditches have been created on the maximum roads due to the WASA pipelines.
CNG taxi driver Mohammed Saleh Noor said it has become tough for them to drive vehicles on the dilapidated roads and they are to spend additional money for repairing their vehicles.
He said longevity of the vehicles is decreasing day by day due to bad condition of the roads.
City dweller Saibal Parial said he is to pay extra fare to the rickshaw-puller due to the unfit roads. "Sometimes they refuse to go even after offering higher fare," he added.
Komol Roy said small vehicles like car or CNG taxi are quite unable to run on the dilapidated roads. The roads are repaired on some occasions but return to their bad shape in a few days, causing troubles further.
Shahanoor Begum, ward councillor of Patenga area said, "CCC is yet to take up renovation work of the roads. The condition of the roads at Katgor, Steel Mills, Narikeltola and Cemenet Crossing is the worst. Vehicles cannot run on the roads of the said areas. So, traffic congestion is making the lives of people miserable every day."
According to the sources in CCC, most of the city roads have lost their longevity due to frequent water-logging and only the temporary repair work will not help the roads sustain for long.
The condition of the roads at Agrabad, Barik Building, Chittagong Port area, Patenga , Steel Mills, Katgor Bazar, Airport, Muradpur, Oxygen Intersection, Sholoshohor, Dewanhat, Olanker Intersection, Port Connecting Road, Bohoddarhat, College Road, Jamal Khan, Momin Road, Station Road, Kadamtali, Dhonialapara, Chawk Bazar, Sholok Bahar, Katalganj, Bakalia, New Market, SS Khaled Road, Mehdibag, OR Nizam Road, Pahartali and Bayezid Bostami is beyond description.

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