Gulshan-Banani Bridge
"A thing of beauty is a joy for ever," But the Gulshan-Banani Bridge, the so-called concrete 'beauty' has become a beast for the residents of Gulshan, particularly for my family and I who are the worst victims.
With no police vigil and traffic laws enforced, the area turns into almost a 'free for all' crime zone as the evening spreads over the adjacent murky lake. Besides, horrendous honks of vehicular traffic and blaring music from the rushing and the parked cars is driving the residents, my family members and I, in particular, mad and sick.
With nightfall, scores of cars and motocycles are parked along the kerb, blocking the longer right lane of the 'Y' loop of the road forcing the speeding vehicles to honk even louder with their hydraulic horns. In addition, people who disembark from their cars and motorcycles keep leaning against the long stretch of the railing, opposite to my flat, until the late hours of the night, smoking cigarettes and cannabis and drinking tea and whistling to passing prostitutes and girls besides trading verbal abuses. The crowd, mostly consisting of young people, even take recourse to dancing with their female counterparts amid loud music wafting from their car stereos, forcing the elderly residents like my wife and I to sit out the night cursing ourselves for being the country's ordinary and powerless citizen. We are the regular tax prayers, though.
At times, we are forced to engage ourselves in verbal duels with this rowdy boisterous crowd which stay stationary right in front of my dining space window for hours together, resorting to such sorts of nuisance.
According to a report of The Daily Star, the bridge over Gulshan-Banani Lake to link Banani and Gulshan residential areas has been built without proper transport planning and public consultation on traffic impact analysis.
The newspaper quoting transport experts said that the bridge was not identified as a possible link between Banani and Gulshan in the Strategic Transport Plan (STP) of Dhaka.
The Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives (LGRD) initially undertook a 90-metre long bridge project to connect 60-foot wide commercial road no-11 in Banani with 40-foot wide residential road no-41 in Gulshan. Local Government Engineering Division of the LGRD is implementing the project.
Later, they revised the project proposal and made it a Y-shaped bridge connecting Gulshan road no-35/A too, which is a dead end.
The Tk 12.47 crore project (initially) was undertaken without obtaining prior environmental clearance and impact assessment.
Environment Conservation Rules (ECR), 1997 require the project authorities to carry out a prior Viability Assessment Report, an Initial Environment Examination and an Environmental Management Plan for any project.
The project has been expeditiously implemented in unusual hurry in the face of special interest of an adviser to the caretaker government, the newspaper added referring to a source.
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