BRT project: Ruins left on roads

A separate bus lane goes straight down the middle of the main road, but 20-25 parts of escalators are lying scattered on the ground, some entirely or partially burnt and broken. These metal scraps have been there for the past three and a half months with no security measures or safety nets.

This was the scenario of the Uttara-Tongi Expressway of the BRT (bus rapid transit) project in the Syed Grand Center area on 19 November. An angry mob torched and vandalised various machinery of the BRT project during the student-people movement in July-August. Escalators that were said to be used for various stations of the BRT projects were also burnt down while lifts and other machinery were damaged.

According to the project authorities, 44 escalators – 6 in the BBA (Bridge Division) portion of the projects and 44 in the RHD (Roads and Highways Department) portion -- were damaged during the student-people movement, while 29 lifts were damaged.

Project director (RHD) Rezaul Karim told Prothom Alo, “The contractor firm gave a list of damaged properties and demanded a certain amount of compensation. We are verifying it now. Besides, we are also assessing the extent of damage, as well as whether any damaged things can be reused.”

The BRT project is 20.5 km long from the Dhaka airport to Shibpur of Gazipur. A two-lane bus route will be constructed on the middle of the road and it will separated by fences. There were 24 stations and each station will have three lifts and four escalators. The project kicked off in 2017 at a cost of Tk 23.98 billion, which was later revised to Tk 42.68 billion.

This correspondent visited the project area on 19 November and found escalators being set up from the Chandana intersection to the Tongi College Gate area, but most of these were either broken or torched. No escalator was set up on the College Gate-Jasim Uddin portion of the BRT expressway and at various points of the road.

The Uttara-TOngi expressway and the Azampur area of the project sustained the maximum damage from the fire. Twenty-five burnt parts of escalators remain scattered on the BRT lane in from of the Syed Grand Centre. A little further away is the Azampur footbridge, and three escalators covered by canvas were seen under it. Some machinery and equipment of these escalators have already been stolen.

Locals said the escalators were kept on the road 5-6 months ago to build the station. When protesters clashed with police in the capital’s Uttara on 18 July, protesters torched buses on the expressway as well as lift and escalator equipment until 5 August.

This correspondent spoke to Md Yusuf, who runs a shop in the local BDR Market adjacent to the expressway. He told Prothom Alo, “Escalators lie on the road since the project and people take away various parts at night since none guard it.”

Project work apparently stopped since the attack and vandalism. Ongoing work was seen nowhere in the project area during spot visits between 12 and 19 November, mostly because of not replacing o repairing the damaged stairs, causing uncertainty over project completion by the current deadline.

Outgoing project director (Bridge Division part) Mahirul Islam told Prothom Alo, “Overall project progress was 97 per cent before the movement. Work on an expressway in Chandana, installation of escalators at stations and some other small tasks were left undone. Meanwhile, the movement began and everything went into disarray. Talks are underway with contractor firms about the damaged equipment.”