Better roads next Eid, says Quader

The Roads and Highways Department will “try its best” to end people’s harrowing home-travel before Eid due to wretched roads, said Communications Minister Obaidul Quader.

“Tell me which road was blocked in the last seven says, name a highway that had traffic jam,” he said while on a visit to Farmgate, one of Dhaka’s busiest spots on Tuesday.

Roads within Dhaka were not under his ministry but, as the communications minister, he was answerable if traffick crippled the roads, said Quader.

“I can’t evade this responsibility,” he said, “I don’t joke around.”

“You’ll not have to worry about bad roads in next Eid,” he said

The minister, during an inter-ministerial meeting on Jul 11, had ordered all roads and highways in the country to be fixed and readied for homebound passengers by Jul 20.

After the deadline passed, Quader told reporters that “20 percent” of the repair work that still remained could be completed in the next couple of days.

Commuters will have to “make the best” of the “patched-up roads”, for now he said.