Let's face it: the proponents of flyover have, by and large, failed to deliver on the promises of a safe, quick journey for the commuters. And of late, it has become more of a bane than a boon, what with the flawed design of some flyovers, defective expansion joints, girder collapse, unplanned bus stands and stairs, and the often-deadly accidents.

The Supreme Court on Monday partly addressed the problem as it upheld a High Court order to remove all stairs located at different points of the Mayor Mohammad Hanif Flyover in Dhaka. The decision came over a month after the HC took suo moto notice of the scourge of stairs, the existence of which has long baffled the experts. While we appreciate the move, we fail to understand why a dispute on something as mundane as the stairs had to be settled by the apex court when the city corporation, as the supervising authority of the flyover, could have done that easily.  

It shows poor governance on the part of the corporation. The city fathers are also expected to work on a number of things related to flyovers that are causing public nuisance, including the haphazardly-built parking spaces, car repair shops and other illegal structures underneath the flyovers. Hopefully they will act on their own initiative before the court has to intervene again.

On that note, we would like to urge the government to take all measures necessary to make the flyovers function properly.