Home ›› 27 Jul 2021 ›› Front
Traffic jam, air pollution and occasional water-logging during rain in areas where works of the country’s first metro rail is going on have become common features of public sufferings in parts of Dhaka city.
The Metro Rail Project covers a huge area of the capital – from Uttara to Motijheel via Mirpur and Agargaon.
Dhaka city mayors Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh and Md Atiqul Islam blamed the mega project for public sufferings and accused the authorities concerned of not taking steps to address the issues.
But MAN Siddique, managing director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) which is implementing the project, rejected the allegations. He said that they had completed the ground work before the rainy season.
“We have completed ground work in Mirpur a year ago. Station and line setting work is in progress. We should not be blamed for water-logging,” he said.
Siddique said that the city corporations, Dhaka WASA and Dhaka Power Distribution Company, among other agencies, dug the roads repaired under the Metro Rail Project.
The Business Post found that at many points from Mirpur-10 to Motijheel, contractors fenced more area of the roads than necessary. This made the already narrow roads narrower, leading to traffic congestion.
On the other hand, parts of the roads that were dug to install pillars are yet to be repaired.
Construction materials have been kept on Rokeya Sarani at Taltola, Khamarbari, Topkhana Road areas, hampering traffic movement.
The Metro Rail Project staff shut parts of the busy Rokeya Sarani at times without notice, said Mehedi Hasan, a banker who travels to Motijheel on office days from Mirpur. This causes massive sufferings for the commuters and at times, ambulances carrying critical patients have to remain stuck in gridlocks.
City corporation officials said that the drainage system has been filled with soil from the Metro Rail Project.
Md Shariful Hasan, a resident of Mirpur-10, said that parts of the area go under water even after moderate rain as the drainage system has been blocked with debris from the project.
Air pollution near the project site is also high as guidelines for keeping construction materials are not being followed, green activists alleged.
Dhaka North City Corporation’s Chief Engineer Brigadier General Muhammad Amirul Islam said that they handed over parts of the roads falling under the Metro Rail Project to the implementation authority.
“Metro Rail implementation authority will take care of the roads and address public sufferings until the project is finished. They are responsible for traffic management, pollution reduction, repairing, arranging alternative routes, among others, until they hand over the roads to us,” he explained.
Dhaka South City Corporation Mayor Taposh said that the lack of coordination in implementing development projects in Dhaka, including the Metro Rail, caused public sufferings.
“Metro Rail and other projects caused water logging in some areas,” he said.
DNCC Mayor Atiqul accused the Metro Rail implementation authority of violating terms and conditions of the contract. He said DNCC removed 237 sacks of construction debris from city’s drains.
“The Metro Rail Project implementation authority did not abide by the conditions set by the government,” he said. The project has been allocated fund to reduce public sufferings during the implementation work.
DMTCL started working on the 20.10km MRT Line-6 in July 2012 from Uttara to Motijheel. It is scheduled to be completed by 2024.
The much-hyped first-ever Metro Rail will have 16 stations from Uttara 3rd Phase via Pallabi, Mirpur-11, Mirpur-10, Kazipara, Shewrapara, Agargaon, Bijoy Sarani, Farmgate, Karwan Bazar, Shahbag, Dhaka University and Secretariat to Motijheel. The journey will take 35 minutes.
So far, the overall progress of the project is 67.63 per cent. The physical work from Uttara to Agargaon has been completed 87.80 per cent while 65.48 per cent works on the Agargaon-Motijheel section has been finished.
The government had earlier announced that the Uttara to Agargaon section would be opened to public by December 2021. The rest of the route will be opened in phases.
Metro Rail MD Siddique said that they have extended the deadline to December 2022. “It might be extended again as the coronavirus pandemic is hampering our work,” he said.
