Police permission required before digging up roads in Dhaka

DMP Commissioner Sheikh Md Sazzat Ali issues a public notice, requesting companies and contractors to follow it

Any digging up on the roads in the Dhaka will require permission from the Dhaka Metropolitan Police from now on. Those breaching the requirement will be brought to book, authorities have warned.

DMP Commissioner Sheikh Md Sazzat Ali issued a public notice on Wednesday and requested companies and contractors to follow it.

Digging up roads hampers the normal traffic flow, the notice said. Different companies, contracting companies or utility services dig up the road for their respective works and take a long time to repair them. Sometimes, it even takes seven to eight months.

Capital residents also suffer as roads are dug up without arranging alternative routes, when more road is dug up than needed, warning signs are not put up, when dug up debris or soil is dumped beside the road, when materials like pipes and cables are left on the road, when volunteers are not recruited to control the traffic during digging or after-digging repair works, the notice says.

All this causes further traffic congestion, leads to difficulties for the public, and wastes millions as the country loses work hours, the DMP notice says.

The notice also includes some directives in this regard.

They are:

>> Digging up work cannot start without permission from DMP headquarters.

>> No digging work from 6am to 10pm. Construction work should be conducted during the night, with roads opening to traffic in the morning.

It also orders that the following points be ensured before digging work is conducted:

>> Dates of starting and finishing the work should be announced beforehand and work must be completed by that specific date.

>> The digging site, and 200 metres on either side, should have proper traffic management, and proper traffic signal lights.

>> Authorities must recruit the necessary workforce to ensure the work finishes at the scheduled time.

>> There must be alternative routes for pedestrians and traffic.

>> To make the dug-up road usable, iron sheets should be brought to the site before the digging starts.

>> One lane in a road is allowed to be dug up in the night, but it must become usable before the sunrise.

>> Under no circumstances can both sides of a road be dug up together at th same time.

>> Night-time digging work should be accompanied by a DMP Traffic Division representative.

>> Any road can be dug up at night time for a maximum of seven days. It should be repaired in the next three days. The authorities should employ the highest number of workers and technicians in these cases.

Seeking assistance from everyone on the matter, the notice said: “Any contractor company and related people defying these conditions of road digging and causing traffic disruptions in the Dhaka metropolitan area will face legal actions, including the cessation of work.”