Editorial
Arterial highways in dire straits
Maintenance lapses exacting a heavy price
Once Bangladesh could take heart from the fact that compared to its level of development, its highway networks girdling the country were of a reasonably good standard. But now this doesn't hold good. Cumulative lack of maintenance for years has stripped away the advantage. Whatever went in the name of maintenance was patch-work. The money allocated to maintenance is also paltry vis-à-vis requirement. The upshot is a bonfire of corruption with the little there is instead of any serious repair.
Once the sections of the highways are laid, particularly by local contractors, who usually do a sloppy job -- thanks to corruption and blending of spurious materials -- these usually get potholed the size of ditches. This happens by normal downpours, to say nothing of incessant rains which wreak a heavier damage.
That is exactly the state to which a major portion of the 120 km Dhaka-Mymensingh highway has deteriorated making it unworkable and unmotorable. Just how horrific are the conditions of the highway has been graphically illustrated by The Daily Star photographic spreadouts on the front and metropolitan pages of the yesterday's issue. If the sights of covered overloaded trucks being manually salvaged and mangled lorries attempted to be craned out of cesspool fail to nudge the roads and highways and transport ministries into action, then governance has surely touched a new, unforgivable low.
Already the supply side is under strain in the inclement weather topped off by floods in a number of districts resulting in higher prices of daily necessaries and export and import loss to the economy. Little wonder, transport owners have suspended bus operations along the route for an indefinite period. The ministers concerned should at once put their heads together to reclaim the derelict road portions to a working state.
The message that rings out to the government, loud and clear, is that negligence to maintenance of infrastructure, which itself, on the whole, is inadequate, must be replaced by a vigorous hands-on approach to set it in order.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments