Poor Condition Of Roads
Communications minister faces volley of queries in JS
Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain faced a tough time yesterday to justify the delay to begin conversion works of Dhaka-Chittagong Highway into four lanes, construction of Padma Bridge and poor condition of roads in different parts of the country.
He was replying to lawmakers' queries with his apparently habituated funny and jolly mood when the atmosphere suddenly changed as veteran Awami League lawmaker Tofail Ahmed took the floor to raise a supplementary question.
Citing his bitter experience during his recent visit to Brahmanbaria area, Tofail described the sorry state of roads in the area.
"Due to bad condition of road for lack of repair works, I had to travel an extra 40 kilometres to reach an area though the actual distance was only seven kilometres," Tofail said.
Tender for four-lane Dhaka-Chittagong Highway was completed two years ago, but the work along with construction of Padma Bridge and elevated expressway could not yet begin, he said.
During question hour session, some treasury bench lawmakers also described the same situation in their constituencies and asked when those would be repaired.
Deputy Speaker Col (retd) Shawkat Ali, presiding over the sitting, said it is not Tofail's query, but of us all.
In response, the minister did not say anything about repairing of roads.
On Dhaka-Chittagong Highway, he said tender process was scrapped twice and a Pakistani design consultant firm left the work incomplete, causing the delay.
On Padma Bridge, he said construction work would begin in July this year.
He said the construction work of elevated expressway is likely to begin within the next three months.
The minister claimed that the government achieved massive success in collecting funds of US $1.3 billion and US $2.65 billion for construction of elevated expressway and Padma Bridge respectively.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments