Letters to the Editor
Roads in bad state of disrepair
On a brief re-visit to Bangladesh, I have been very shocked at the state of the roads. Little roads are bone-rattling enough but arterial ones are frightening!
In 1999, when I first went up to Haluaghat, where I lived and worked for 2 ½ years, we reached Mymensingh in 3 hours and in the following years I travelled that road many times. This week, however, it took 5 hours of torture for the little car! Of course, the road from there to Haluaghat is one of the best and most beautiful in the country but I hear it was built by the South Koreans. So why cannot Bangladeshis build decent roads when there is no shortage of brilliant engineers and honourable workmen? How is it that, apparently, incompetents with the right political contacts get the job and the few who do try to do the job properly are constantly harassed by those wanting 'economies' and 'short cuts'? I saw expensive road-building machinery and materials, lying unused at the side of the road and little evidence of activity. I believe the same applies to the Dhaka-Chittagong highway. On smaller roads, men have been seen putting stuff into holes in the road that is swept away in the next rainstorm!
We are doubtless impressed by the brand-new flyovers but I guess they are a different sort of project than a 'mere' repair job -- though it will be interesting to see what happens when they need repair -- and how soon…
Is it surprising that no investors come forward to provide the funds for a nation to build a BRIDGE when the evidence is that it cannot master the art of mending holes in the road?
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