Accidents due to bad roads

Saturday's road crash in Moghbazar intersection happened when a reckless bus driver went over a poorly repaired trench on the street, lost control and hit three construction workers, killing two of them and seriously injuring another. The street had been dug up several months ago to pump water out for the construction of the flyover (started in 2013) and later was carpeted but obviously in a slipshod manner. The rains made the pothole bigger and therefore more dangerous.

This is old news – roads becoming potholed as soon as the rains come in because they have not been properly constructed or maintained by the concerned authorities. Digging up of roads in the rainy season is another illogical phenomenon that causes immense suffering. Often, during the rainy season, deep potholes and open drains are poorly marked with a tree branch or stick or not at all, leading to serious accidents.

In fact a large portion of the streets and roads of this city, even in residential areas, are in a dilapidated condition becoming all the more unusable in the monsoon season. 

There is also a tendency of shifting responsibility of repairing the roads after they have been dug up or used for construction by government bodies other than the City Corporation, which is primarily responsible for most of the roads. This results in potholed roads being left unrepaired for years on end.

Repairing the roads and making sure they are reinforced with proper, durable materials are basic expectations from the City Corporations. It is high time that the City Corporations carried out their fundamental duties, one of them being to provide the city dwellers with good, unbroken roads.