Standing on the damaged road in Sipahibagh and one will see more than just trenches and debris. They will see a blueprint for profit.
The road adjacent to the Sipahibagh “Lohar Gate” in the capital has been cut twice in the last few months, said locals. After months of digging for sewage and storm water drainage system and repairs, just when locals breathed a sigh of relief, the excavators returned.
This time, their excuse is installing the overhead electricity cables underground.
The same story plays out from Motaleb Plaza to Kataban in Hatirpul. The road was just repaired with RCC instead of bitumen asphalt. Then came the diggers again. More underground cables. More contracts. More money.
“They dug the road by making big trenches in the middle of the road during Ramadan, and now they are digging half the road along the side of the road,” said battery rickshaw driver Md Milon, standing on the damaged road in Sipahibagh, watching another cycle of destruction begin.
For years, stakeholders have discussed the need for better coordination between Dhaka’s utility service providers to prevent the repeated excavation of the same roads. Despite the clear toll on citizens and the economy, a formal government initiative remains absent.
This lack of oversight results in a significant waste of time and public funds, resources that are increasingly scarce as many public-interest projects stall due to the ongoing financial crisis.
A Dhaka South City Corporation official told TIMES of Bangladesh that while they recognise the public’s plight, they have nothing to do.
The business of breaking roads
Behind the dust and disruption lies a calculated system where public suffering translates into private profit.
People involved in the process of bidding and issuing work order speak plainly: contractors aim to ensure that the allocated budget is not returned in any way. They do not consider the suffering of the people, business interests take precedence.
The strategy is as cynical as it is simple. Almost all contractors want to start work during the rainy season. “Why? Because if they start work during this time, the road is not sustainable. It deteriorates quickly. As a result, there is an opportunity for re-repair, new tenders, and getting work again,” an official of the Dhaka South City Corporation seeking anonymity.
The work is done keeping this evil mind in mind.
Although there are government restrictions and circulars regarding road digging during the monsoon season, permission is given ignoring those rules due to political influence, he reveals.
There are allegations of political division even in the approval process.
The timing is deliberate. The entire process is intentionally delayed so that the work can be completed at once by June, the last month of financial year. The main objective: complete the allocated budget expenditure within the stipulated time. Not to serve the public. Not to build lasting infrastructure. To spend the budget.
The bill game
On Madrasa Road adjacent to Kazipara Metro Station, the cycle continues. The road was repaired after electricity work. Now it’s being cut again for sewage pipes.
Shafiqur Rahman, the supervisor of the contracting company overseeing the project, admits it could take eight months to a year.
He told TIMES, “The goal is to complete about half of the work in the first three months. Then the engineers come and assess the amount of work, materials used and various problems in detail. If everything is satisfactory, the bill is approved and after receiving the money, the work begins in the second phase. In many cases, the bill has to be assessed up to four times to get the full bill.”
He cited various reasons behind the delay in the work, including extortion and interference from local political quarters, convenient excuses that stretch timelines and inflate costs.
Meanwhile, Swarna Rani Pal, a first-year student of the Holy Cross School and College, travels on this road daily. “I am afraid of falling into the trenches when passing by them. Moreover, there is a lot of stench,” she told TIMES.
A system designed to fail
The roads tell the story. Rampura-Khilgaon Road, Segunbagich’s Pioneer Road, Madrasa Road adjacent to Kazipara Metro Station, and West Kazipara – everywhere a familiar pattern emerges: freshly repaired asphalt is almost immediately torn up again for electricity, gas, water, or drainage lines.
For locals, this lack of coordination means months, sometimes a year, of perpetual dust and gridlock. Just as one project ends and residents hope for relief, the next excavation begins.
Governance expert Sadik Hasan, a professor of Dhaka University’s Department of Public Administration, suggests this is not just poor planning, but a calculated business strategy. “The primary goal is to ensure the allocated budget is never returned,” Sadik explains. “Public suffering is ignored in favor of vested interests.”
Sadik also points to a cynical motive behind monsoon-season construction. By building during the rains, contractors ensure the roads fail quickly, creating a perpetual cycle of new tenders and fresh repairs.
“Despite government circulars banning roadwork during the rainy season, political influence often overrides the rules,” Sadik noted. “Projects are deliberately delayed so they can be rushed through in the final weeks of the fiscal year, ensuring the entire budget is spent by June regardless of the quality of work.”
Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), emphasises that effective budget implementation hinges on proper and timely planning. “In our country, a chronic lack of foresight often delays project implementation, directly intensifying public suffering,” he said.
“If budget allocations and fund circulation were managed efficiently and prioritised from the start, there would be no need for the reckless, year-end rush to exhaust funds.”
He further noted that these planning failures do more than just cause delays; they create a breeding ground for corruption. This is particularly evident in the tender process, where collusion between contractors, politicians, and influential circles stifles healthy competition. Consequently, project transparency and accountability are severely compromised.
“Globally, successful budget implementation is built on clear planning and strict oversight,” Iftekharuzzaman added. “If Bangladesh adopted a transparent model, prioritising projects based on urgency and effectiveness, we could significantly reduce both public distress and the irregularities that plague the end of the fiscal year.”
The coordination charade
For years, the need for coordination among Dhaka’s utility service agencies has been debated as a way to end the cycle of repeated road excavations. Yet, despite the mounting waste of time and public funds, the government has failed to launch a formal initiative. This inefficiency is particularly glaring now, as many public-interest projects sit stalled due to the ongoing financial crisis.
Speaking to TIMES, Kazi Borhan Uddin, additional chief engineer of Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC), admitted that the corporation’s hands are tied.
“When agencies like WASA or power providers face issues, they apply for permission, and we are obligated to grant it,” he explained.
When asked why these efforts are not synchronised, he noted that such coordination is “impossible” because agencies apply separately as needs arise.
To make matters worse, repaired sections rarely return to their original state. These hastily renovated patches often collapse quickly, eventually turning the entire roadway into a series of hazardous pits.
The solution that never was
Architect and urban planner Iqbal Habib identifies this cycle of roadwork as a fundamental failure of urban planning. “If all service providers were integrated into a smart utility duct system, the need for repeated digging would vanish,” he told TIMES. “However, this requires a centralised city government to manage coordination but currently public suffering simply is not a priority to the people concerned.”
A smart utility duct is an underground tunnel, built beneath or alongside roads, designed to house electricity, fibre optics, gas, water, and sewage lines in an organised manner. Equipped with sensors, this advanced system provides immediate warnings of faults, allowing for targeted repairs without ever breaking the road surface.
Habib points out that a successful blueprint already exists in Dhaka – the Dhanmondi road 32. Since its construction in 1997, its sewage and cable lines have been upgraded multiple times without a single excavation, thanks to a built-in duct system.
Despite its proven success, the proposal for a unified city government remains stagnant. First championed by Dhaka’s first elected mayor, Mohammad Hanif, the demand was ignored by his own party, the Awami League, and subsequently sidelined by the BNP.
Over the decades – through multiple administrations, a military-governed caretaker government, and the most recent interim government – the initiative has failed to gain traction. When asked if a transition to smart utility ducts was on the horizon, the Chief Engineer of Dhaka South City Corporation simply stated that no such initiative exists.
Rules on paper, chaos on the ground
Even a basic adherence to existing city policies could significantly alleviate public distress. According to the Road Excavation Policy 2019 for Dhaka City, roadwork must be conducted in small, manageable sections to prevent widespread disruption.
The policy mandates that excavation occur only at night using modern equipment and requires roads to be fully rehabilitated and passable within 15 to 30 days.
Furthermore, all debris and “spoil” must be cleared within 24 hours of digging.
The policy also emphasises inter-agency coordination, requiring utility providers to align their schedules with the city corporations.
Safety is meant to be a priority, with mandatory traffic management plans, warning signs, barricades, and security measures in place before a single shovel hits the ground.
However, the reality is a stark contrast. Piles of excavated earth and debris frequently clog roadsides, forcing pedestrians to navigate dangerous, open pits.
Barricades and warning signs are often non-existent, and the 30-day completion deadline is routinely ignored.
Dhaka’s roads remain “open wounds”, not due to simple neglect, but by apparent design. Each excavation, each delay, and each rainy-season repair serves as a lucrative line item in a contractor’s ledger, leaving citizens to pay the price while vested interests collect the rewards.
