City roads get wrecked as no law prohibits diggers

Most service agencies dig up city roads indiscriminately in defiance of an official manual that lacks legal claws, subjecting people to sufferings round the year.

Such observations came from experts who said that, in absence of a legal framework, the agencies go on trifling with the 'Road Cutting Manual 2003'.

The policy was framed as per an inter-ministerial decision in 2003 to check uncontrolled road cutting by various agencies. The main objective was timely road cutting and instant repair to lessen public sufferings.

City corporation sources said the road-cutting manual was mainly prepared to control DWASA's activities. But the Dhaka WASA is violating the policy most, the critics said.

Seeking anonymity, a senior official of Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) told the FE that there is a list of 90 major roads which no agency can cut abruptly and for which strict rules are there. Of these roads, 40 are in DNCC. "But no agency complies with the rules," he added.

It is mentioned in the policy that there is a one-stop coordination cell for road cutting. Besides, the agencies must cut the roads after midnight and finish before 5:00am, deposit compensation for per-square-metre road space and equal amount as security deposit, and give clearance certificate timely so that city corporation can repair the roads timely.

And, most importantly, no road can be cut within three years of cutting once.

Common people suffer almost whole year due to traffic jam, water-logging, and muddy and risky roads due to road cutting while blaming, most of the time, the city corporations which are supposed to repair the roads timely.

WASA, Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL), Dhaka Electric Supply Company Limited (DESCO), Dhaka Power Distribution Company (DPDC), Fibre Atom, Titas, and Summit are some of the major service-providing agencies which need road-cutting permission.

No agency does comply with all these rules. DWASA in particular violates every rule and cuts the roads indiscriminately the whole year. WASA has three types of development and maintenance works on roads: drainage line, water line and sewerage line.

Sometimes, some agencies even cut the roads at night without permission to avert city corporation's charge.

Asked about the allegation that city corporation does not repair the damaged roads timely, a DNCC official said the agencies do not provide the written clearance as they cannot complete work timely.

There is a road network of a total of 2,400 kilometres in the city, and 1,340 kilometres are under DNCC domain.

Of the 1,340 kms in five zones, 50-60km roads are cut annually. DNCC receives about Tk 350 million each year as compensation, of which 80 per cent is used for repair work, the official said.

Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) chief engineer Farazi Shahabuddin Ahmed said it is not possible to avoid giving permission to various agencies as these are the development works. The agencies cut the roads one after another although there is rule that no road can be cut within one year after cutting once.

"There is no coordination among the agencies and the city corporations as we do not know their action plan. We give road- cutting permission during dry season--October till April--on condition," he said.

Most of the agencies cannot comply with the conditions, he said, adding: there should be some mechanisms through which the coordination can be made effective.

Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC) executive chairman Hossain Zillur Rahman told the FE that there are two types of challenges in road cutting: lack of timing coordination and failure to modernise the work order with necessary conditions.

"As people usually do not comply with the policies, there should be a legal framework defining bringing the damaged roads in its previous condition, coordination, compensation, penalty and punishment," he said.

There is Street Works Act across the globe to bring the whole activities under a legal framework to avoid public sufferings, the economist out. Despite repeated calls and sms, no officials of DWASA and DPDC respondent on the issue.

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