School kids suffer due to slow progress

It takes only 15 minutes for schoolchildren to reach their school from home. Nevertheless, Mohammad Tanvir and Mohammad Kawsar, two fourth graders of a local school in the capital's Ahmedbagh, have been undergoing tremendous sufferings for quite a long time owing to the sorry state of the road they walk through.

"It is really painful for us to walk through the road as it is in a very sorry state because of its construction work. It becomes even a nightmare when it rains," said Tanvir.

"We cannot keep our school uniforms clean while walking on the road, especially during and after the rains," said Kawsar, a fellow of Tanvir.

Tasmia Begum, mother of Tanvir, said walking through the road was painful for her too, as she had to ply it several times a day to take her children to schools.

The road is of great importance as it connects the area to Mugda, Mayakanon, Madinabagh and Basabo. It has been almost completely unusable for the last three months, said residents of the area.

Only a few rickshaws can somehow move through the road since Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) is working to install sewer lines to reduce waterlogging in the area, they said.

Another resident, Md Monir Uddin, said digging of the road to install sewer lines first started in February and continued till March, and the work started again in June, which is still continuing.

He added that the installation of sewer lines was very important for the area to mitigate waterlogging problem, but the authorities were a too long time.

Monir also urged the authorities to expedite their work to reduce the people's sufferings.

Asked, Abdul Kader, executive engineer of zone-1, said they were looking into the matter and already gave instructions to the contractor concerned to speed up the work.