Cracks on Asian Highway sparks fear of accident

 

The cracks on the important Asian Highway project in Sonargaon, Narayanganj have sparked fears of a major accident, causing concern among local residents, pedestrians and vehicle drivers.

 

A massive section of severe cracks and subsidence, creating a dangerous stretch of road that has turned into a potential death trap.

 

The damage spans nearly a quarter of a kilometre on the eastern side of an underpass in the Singlab-Pakunda area of the upazila. Local residents first spotted the huge cracks on Saturday morning.

 

The Roads and Highways Department (RHD) in Narayanganj immediately halted traffic on the affected section to prevent a major accident.

 

As a result, hundreds of vehicles became stranded, causing severe congestion and immense suffering for passengers and drivers.

 

In the afternoon, Syed Aslam Ali, project director of the Dhaka Bypass Road Four-Lane Development Project, visited the site to assess the situation.

 

A visit to the site found long cracks running both across and along several sections of the asphalt road. In several places, the asphalt had broken away, exposing the underlying soil and what locals described as poor-quality brick chips, while parts of the road had sunk.

 

The situation has triggered fears of further large-scale ground collapse in the area.

 

Syed Aslam Ali, project director of the Dhaka Bypass Road Four-Lane Development Project, rejected allegations of poor construction and irregularities, offering a different explanation for the damage.

 

He said the road had been weakened after two to three days of continuous rainfall softened the soil underneath it.

 

The constant movement of heavily loaded vehicles then caused the softened soil to shift, resulting in the road sinking and developing cracks.

 

“We have spoken to officials of Dhaka Bypass Expressway Development Company Limited, the private partner implementing the project.

 

They are urgently constructing a diversion road to restore traffic movement. The damaged section will be drilled and repaired as quickly as possible,” he said.

 

Local residents directly blamed alleged corruption in the construction work and the nighttime removal of soil for the road’s deterioration.

 

Anwar Hossain, a local resident, expressed anger, saying, “We saw with our own eyes how poorly the road was built.

 

The quality of the stone chips and bitumen was extremely poor. The road did not even last a year before cracking and sinking.

 

The government is spending crores of taka, while contractors are stealing at the expense of our lives.”

Another local resident, Al Amin, made similar allegations, saying, “In the name of building the road, some local people linked to the Chinese contractor dug up soil from both sides of the road at night and sold it, turning the areas into ponds.

 

The road was built in a hurry without constructing any guide walls.

 

As a result, pressure from the soil, combined with the excavated areas on both sides, has caused the entire road to sink. If it rains for a few more days, this whole section could collapse.”