An asset or a burden?

By Md.Ashiqul Haque West Hajipara Road, Dhaka-1219
6 March 2005, 18:00 PM
. PHOTO: AFP
Seeing the heavy construction of the Mohakhali Flyover, one question has always struck hard in my mind that is 'what is the main purpose of undergoing this bulge of enormous construction'? I guess it was built to combat the horrible traffic jam at the Mohakhali railcrossing. So the main purpose was to remove jam from that road, that is, to lessen the sufferings of the city-dwellers to some extent.

But the real picture after its construction is quite shocking. Albeit it has removed jam from the rail crossing, it has introduced a huge traffic jam between the landing pathway of the flyover and the traffic signal situated in front of Rangs. It is going worse day by day and it has gone completely beyond the tolerance level. Though it is a very important road, city dwellers have to suffer helplessly a delay of 25-30 minutes while passing through this road.

I guess there were some talented and ingenious planners behind this huge piece of construction work. But one thing is not clear to me. Were those talented planners blind or were they so clever and creative that they forgot about all the consequences, or else was it built to enhance the beauty of Dhaka? I think the engineers and planners do know good answers to these questions or else they would not have taken the risk of such an unplanned construction work.

Despite knowing well that all these useless words are going to fall in deaf ears, being a regular sufferer I could not resist myself from writing this letter.