Around 2,100km -- 10.36 percent of all surveyed roads have been in a sorry state since long, says a recent Roads and Highways Department (RHD) survey. These roads enable all sorts of passengers and goods-laden vehicles from the country’s remote areas of north, northwest, mid, east, northeast, south, southeast, and southwest districts to enter the capital Dhaka, different metropolitan cities, district towns and upazila headquarters.
According to media reports, although the RHD continued to improve its roads across the country, these roads and many portions of national highways are still in very bad shape. As per the government’s national road network classification, LGED is responsible for all upazila and union roads in the country, as well as the development and maintenance of village roads.
There are 372,754 km of roads under their jurisdiction;42 per cent of these are paved roads and 58 per cent are muddy roads. In the last 16 years, immediate past Sheikh Hasina-led Awami league government constructed and reconstructed hundreds of bridges, roads, and highways, including Padma Bridge, Bangabandhu Jamuna Bridge, Teesta Bridge, Payra Bridge, the Second Kanchpur Bridge, the Second Meghna Bridge, and the Second Gomti Bridge.
Some 100 highways were also opened to traffic to establish direct road connectivity to further strengthen the country’s economy. The then government also constructed 100 new bridges in 25 districts across the country.
The establishment of uninterrupted road and rail communication in riverine Bangladesh required the construction of bridges over major rivers. We had thought the construction of bridges, highways and other roads would ensure discipline on roads and highways to ease the travelling of people.
The biggest challenge is to repair
damaged roads and highways and
maintain discipline
But, Sheikh Hasina government completely failed to bring discipline on the road, nor had it implemented it in the transport sector. The biggest challenge is to repair damaged roads and highways and maintain discipline.The RHD, responsible for the construction and the maintenance of the major roads, highways and bridges network of country, however, identified dilapidated roads and highways and 155 jam-prone spots across the country. Therefore, the travellers have been facing hassle on roads and highways during their journey for a long.
The Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) in its recent study says the corruption rate from the past government’s allocation for the roads and highways sector was between 23 to 40 percent during the period of fiscal year FY 2009-10 to FY 2022-23. The government allocated Tk 169,449 crore for the RHD, of which 23-40 percent or equivalent to Tk 29,230 crore and Tk 50,835 crore was embezzled.
A syndicate involving politicians, bureaucrats and contractors were involved in corruption while implementing projects for public interest. This corruption was institutionalised from lower level to the highest level and around 40-43 percent of the money went missing in the bribery of RHD.
Besides, experts and engineers said overloading, lack of budgetary allocation for timely maintenance, and poor construction materials are the major reasons behind the poor conditions. Unfit vehicles and slow-moving vehicles are also deteriorating the condition of roads and highways
Therefore, journey of people has now become more torturous as many parts of national highways are not in good shape alongside heavy pressure of vehicles may aggravate the situation. Many portions of roads and national highways got affected due to the recent floods in 12 districts- Moulvibazar, Habiganj, Brahmanbaria, Cumilla, Feni, Noakhali, Lakshmipur, Chattogram, Cox's Bazar, Bandarban, Rangamati, and Khagrachhari.
Besides, the ongoing floods in Sherpur, Netrakona, Mymensigh, Jamalpur and other districts are also damaging the national highways, regional highways and village roads of the districts. Keeping this latest situation in mind, the concerned ministry and BRTA need to repair the damaged-roads across the country on the urgent basis. Passengers on the all roads and national highways will not experience painful journeys from the capital Dhaka and other cities. The government must repair the damaged roads, regional highways and national highways immediately so that people can go to their respective destinations safely.
