In defence of allegations against the Roads and Highways Department (RHD), raised by the two ministers recently, engineers of the agency said the road-related problems take place, as they cannot work freely.
The officials also said problems begin from project proposal preparation and continue to construction level due to non-cooperation of different government agencies, including the Planning Commission (PC).
Besides the ministers, the RHD officials were also charged with various allegations during a public hearing, held at Sarak Bhaban in the capital on Tuesday with its Chief Engineer (CE) Mohammad Jawed Alam in the chair.
The agency organised the public hearing as part of its National Integrity Strategy Action Plan. A number of the RHD employees, contractors, and representatives of truck owners and workers associations attended the programme, among others.
Additional Secretary of the Road Transport and Highways Division Rowshan Ara Begum was also present.
The allegations against the RHD included substandard road construction, overrun of project cost and time, and relaxation of overloading for more than two years - that are taking heavy tolls on the road condition.
The entity was also charged over deteriorating condition of bridges, tolls on highways, not paying arrears of contractors, complications regarding regularisation of its employees, and legitimacy of defect liability period (DLP) when overloading is allowed etc.
The RHD CE said road condition throughout the country has been improved, except the highways that are under development for converting into four-lane ones.
Condition of the road, for which the finance minister accused the RHD, is now under an ongoing project.
The CE further said the RHD is aware of the deplorable condition of bridges from their study, and they are ready for improving their condition.
The RHD official Chandan Kumar Bosak said time and cost overrun takes place in most of the projects, as they have to follow the PC's instruction to keep the implementation period three years.
He said one year from the three-year period is usually lost just to get approval of the development project proposal (DPP).
"If we get freedom to prepare projects in terms of size and considering technical factors, the time and cost overrun can be averted," he opined.
Besides, the RHD has to face delay in acquiring land and utility shifting for a project, as land record system in the country is not good yet. There are multi-sectoral offices under a project, said Abul Kalam Azad, another official.
Answering to backlog on road maintenance, he further said the situation will improve, if maintenance fund is increased in coordination with budget size, which has been increased significantly.
Replying to a question on relaxing overloaded vehicles on roads and highways, Mohammad Amanullah said the RHD wants to remain strict in case of axle load limit, but relaxed it for the time being considering the country's context.
However, replying to another question on how long the relaxation will continue when two years are gone, the RHD CE said discussion is underway to bring down the axle load limit according to the allowable limit.
The truck owners' association representative said they do not want to carry excess goods on their vehicles, and requested the RHD to set up weighing machines at different entry points to check overloading.
Regarding DLP, a contractor raised question over legitimacy of keeping the period three years when overloading is allowed.
Representatives of the RHD employees union charged the entity of not removing anomalies in regularisation process of employees, who worked for 13 years without any benefit.
They also said even after regularisation many employees are still deprived of their dues.
There are also problems in getting the dues by employees, who were regularised by the committee concerned, but died or retired before effectiveness of the committee's approval, they added.
