Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday ordered the communications ministry to initiate immediate steps to repair the badly-damaged highways before Eid.
She asked the roads and highways department to ensure 'accountability' in spending money for repairs and maintenance of roads and highways to get funds for the purpose, said officials.
Sheikh Hasina held an emergency meeting with the communications ministry at the Prime Minister's Office against the backdrop of suspension of bus service on a number of routes, including Dhaka-Tangail and Dhaka-Mymensingh, by transport operators to press for repairs of rundown highways.
Traffic movement has become almost impossible as most of the highways have developed potholes and craters due to lack of maintenance and repairs for long.
An apparently annoyed prime minister asked the communications ministry to cancel holidays of the roads and highways officials and employees if necessary to complete repair works on major highways before Eid to ease public suffering, said an official concerned.
Plying of buses has remained suspended on the Dhaka-Mymensingh route since Thursday, and bus operators of Tangail on Sunday enforced an indefinite strike on the Dhaka-Tangail route, causing immense suffering to commuters.
'Torrential rains this year has caused much damage to the highways. We will be able to repair the damaged stretches of the major roads in seven days if it does not rain,' communications minister Syed Abul Hossain told New Age after the meeting.
He, however, said that the prime minister had ordered immediate steps for completing the repair works before Eid to reduce suffering of the homebound people before Eid, which falls on August 31 or on September 1.
The prime minister assured the roads and highways department of necessary funds for immediate repairs and maintenance of highways.
After the prime minister's assurances, bus owners in the evening withdrew their strike.
'We asked for immediate release of Tk 690 crore allocated for the current fiscal to begin repair works on the damaged highways. We will float tenders and give work orders soon after the fund is available,' Abul Hossain said.
Secretary to the road division Md Mozammel Haque Khan made a power-point presentation on the activities of the communications ministry and the roads and highways department at the meeting that lasted over two and half hours.
The secretary said the craters and potholes on the highways would be repaired in a week on an emergency footing to ensure transport movement if it did not rain.
At the directives of the prime minister, the communications minister along with senior officials concerned went to the badly-damaged Mawna point on Dhaka-Mymensigh highway to see the condition of the road network.
The prime minister asked the communications ministry to submit a report on the expenditures during the tenures of the BNP-Jamaat alliance government, caretaker government and the first half of the present government on roads and highways, the prime minister's press secretary Abul Kalam Azad told reporters.
Sheikh Hasina also asked Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation to increase the number of buses it operates on highways to ease suffering of the homebound people during Eid.
She directed the ministry to operate the Dhaka-Rangpur express train from August 21.
The prime minister's advisers HT Imam and Mashiur Rahman, principal secretary Md Abdul Karim and secretary to PMO Molla Waheeduzzaman, among others, attended the meeting.
At a cabinet meeting on Sunday, the communications minister came under fire from his colleagues for the delay in repairs of the battered road network.
Abul Hossain attributed the delay in road maintenance and repairs to fund constraints and also blamed the past BNP-Jamaat and caretaker governments for their 'failure' to maintain the road network.
Rejecting his claims, finance minister AMA Muhith told the cabinet meeting that lack of monitoring by the authorities concerned was rather the reason for the sorry condition of the highways.
The communications minister, however, on Tuesday said that the roads and highways could have initiated steps earlier for release of the funds.
Source : New Age
No comments:
Post a Comment