U-Turn project: Two demolished, eight come to no use
Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) constructed two U-Turns on Dhaka-Mymensing highway in the capital’s Uttara area one and a half years ago at the cost of about Tk 75 million to get rid of traffic congestion.
These U-Turns were demolished in January last because of two reasons; firstly, work on another mega project (bus rapid transit or BRT) is progressing on the road stretching airport to Gazipur and secondly, those two U-Turns were not reducing traffic congestion.
There are eight more U-Turns on Dhaka-Mymensing highway in Banani, Mahakhali and Tejgaon and these are not much effective, so question aroused on the U-Turn construction project. The DNCC spent 308.4 million (30.84 crore) to construct these 10 U-Turns.
Public transport experts said this money is now being wasted entirely. They said U-Turns are no solution considering the reality of the capital and such measure has been taken without assessing the outcome.
On the other hand, engineers of the DNCC said they too are embarrassed over the project failure and they are now in a very uncomfortable state.
According to the DNCC sources, three U-Turns were opened in December 2020 and the remaining seven in April 2021. At that time, road crossing that were used to take a turn on right on the both side of roads were stopped. Since this initiative did not work, road crossings were opened again after several days.
U-Turns were constructed in front of Rajlakshmi and RAB-1 office in Uttara, Flying Club in Kawla, Banani overpass, Banani Army Stadium, Banani Chairman Bari, Amtali of Mohakhali, Mohakhali Bus Terminal, Nabisco intersection in Tejgaon and BG Press in Satrasta intersection.
As to who will take the responsibility over the failure of the U-Turns project, DNCC chief executive officer Selim Reza told Prothom Alo that entire project did not fail; besides this project was taken long ago and engineers have been instructed to look into the faults.
Visiting the capital on 13 April, no existence of two U-Turns were found in front of Rajlakshmi and RAB-1 office in Uttara and road divider was installed there. On-duty traffic police members said these two U-Turns were removed three months ago.
Transport experts said implementation of the BRT project is underway on the road stretching from airport to Gazipur since 2018 and this is no secret to the DNCC officials so why they would construct U-Turns and it is necessary to hold the people accountable on the matter.
After U-Turn was opened, no vehicle could take a turn on the right on Mohakhali’s Amtali to go to Gulshan-1 and Banani’s Kakoli to go to Gulshan-2. Both crossings are open now. Previously, vehicles had to take a turn on the right at Chairman Bari of Banani to go to Gulshan-1 and near army stadium in Banani to go to Gulshan-2 from Mohakhali.
Several engineers of DNCC, on condition of anonymity, told Prothom Alo they had to open the crossing at Kakoli at the request of an influential lawmaker of ruling party and the owners of Dhaka Chaka plying in Gulshan and Banani area.
The DNCC was forced to open the Kakoli crossing at the excuse that if the crossing remains blocked, vehicles require travelling extra miles. And U-Turns in Mohakhali area did not work due to non-cooperation from bus drivers. DNCC engineers declined to comment on demolishing the two U-Turns in Uttara.
Md Shamsul Hoque, professor of Civil Engineering department at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), observed such ineffective project was taken due to lack of accountability.
He told Prothom Alo walkways are wider than roads in developed countries and yet U-Turns were built by narrowing down footpath in our country and that is an unpardonable crime and that wastes public fund.
*This report appeared in the print and online edition of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten in English by Hasanul Banna