It's worth re-posing the question that town planners raised at a recent virtual press conference organised by the Bangladesh Institute of Planners on "Contemporary Planning and Development Management". The rueful query as to why road digging guidelines are not being followed merits an answer from all the ministries and service providers concerned. Two important issues came up at the press conference: the timing and duration of road digging, and the disregard for the guidelines by contractors.

Indeed, we would like to ask: Why are most of the road diggings done during the rainy season in violation of the existing rules and procedures? In fact, our experience as residents of Dhaka is that a good number of the city roads remain excavated for months on end. As per an estimate cited by a local daily, over 700 kilometres of roads and footpaths in Dhaka alone had reportedly remained excavated for several months last year. Needless to say, such a situation has a direct impact on the commuters as well as residents during monsoon. Apart from affecting the flow of traffic and hampering pedestrian movements, roads under repair may cause accidents and deaths; they are also breeding grounds for mosquitoes. It is also quite strange that 30 percent of Dhaka roads are damaged and have remained in that condition for a long time, due to unplanned excavation and development work of the service agencies, as one report informs us.

This is an issue which has been flagged by the media ad nauseum, without any visible effect, regrettably. We have constantly pointed out that there is hardly any coordination amongst the agencies. Roads in Dhaka are dug by individual service providers whenever they feel the need to do so. The roads are excavated for laying electrical cables, sewer lines, water pipelines, gas pipelines, etc. throughout the year. And this is bound to happen when there is no nodal ministry or agency to ensure coordination among the 52 agencies of 19 ministries.

The Metropolitan Road Excavation Policy, 2019 clearly states that development work in Dhaka should remain suspended between June and October. However, for the authorities to only say that contractors do not follow guidelines is just a fig leaf intended to cover their own failures. Why can't they be made to follow the rules to the letter? We are all for development, but that must not impose extra hardship on the people. And it is up to the ministries and agencies to ensure that the discomfort that any development work entails is not exacerbated by the negligence of the service providers or their failure to comply with the regulations.