Four highways in Jashore turn into a nightmare for travellers

BENAPOLE, Oct 20: Four major highways in Jashore have now turned into a source of acute sufferings for travellers and businesses alike.

Large portions of these roads have lost their asphalt layers, leaving behind potholes and craters. A spell of rain makes it almost impossible to tell where the road ends and the ditches begin.

Once the water dries up, the mud, dust, and loose gravel create yet another ordeal. The broken roads are damaging vehicles daily, while chronic traffic congestion is crippling trade in Noapara industrial town, the Benapole land port city, and Satkhira's Bhomra land port.

Locals blame corruption and substandard work over the past decade and a half for this sorry state of the highways. However, contractors and the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) cite 'poor soil quality and plying of overloaded trucks' as the main causes of the highways getting damaged so rapidly.

Of the four, the worst affected is the Jashore-Khulna highway, which stretches 60.3 km between the two district towns.

The 33.5 km portion under Jashore, from the town to Rajghat in Abhaynagar, is one of the busiest and most vital routes in the southwest. It connects Benapole-the country's largest land port-along with Noapara river port and industrial hub, Mongla seaport in Bagerhat, and the Bhomra land port in Satkhira.

The government took up a project in 2017 to widen and rebuild the highway, launching work in May 2018 after completing all formalities. Toma Construction received the contract for a 19 km section from Padmabila to Chengutia via Rajghat, while Mahbub Brothers was awarded work for the remaining stretch. The project, costing Tk3.21 billion (Tk 321 crore) in two packages, was initially slated for completion by June 2020.

However, citing the pandemic and bad weather, the deadline was first extended to December 2020, then again to June 2022, with the cost rising by Tk 270 million (Tk 27 crore) to Tk 3.48 billion (Tk 348 crore).

Shockingly, within a month of its official handover, cracks and potholes began to appear. Within a year, around 15 km from Rupdia to Noapara had become nearly impassable. The same contractors-Toma Construction and Mahbub Brothers-are now carrying out repair work under a Tk1.72 billion (Tk 172 crore) project that remains ongoing.

The Jashore-Jhenaidah highway has also become perilous for travelling. The 47.48 km road stretch-linking the southwest region with Rajshahi and the northern districts-has become nearly unfit for traffic.

The 20 km stretch from Jashore's Chanchra to Kaliganj in Jhenaidah is riddled with potholes and broken pavement. Most parts of the 27 km section in Jhenaidah have also lost their asphalt, leaving gaping holes.

According to sources, the six-lane expansion project, sent to the Planning Commission in 2021, was supposed to be completed by December 2023.

Failing in that, the first extension pushed the deadline to June 2026. Later, in June this year, RHD proposed another six-month extension and tripled the land acquisition cost to Tk 26.5 billion (Tk2,650 crore), further slowing the work.

The Jashore-Narail highway, spanning 34 km, also lies in poor shape. Sections between Hamidpur and Baulia, Rostampur and Charabhita, and Dholgan and Tularampur have become nearly unusable, causing

frequent accidents involving small vehicles.

Meanwhile, the Jashore-Satkhira highway-particularly the 7 km stretch from Navaran to Bagachra-is in a dire state. On-site visits revealed that many potholes have been temporarily filled with bricks, and some sections are being reinforced with brick soling.

Ahmed Raju, manager of Noapara Group, an importing firm, said, "Noapara is both a river port and an industrial hub. Around 70 percent of the country's imported fertiliser is unloaded here and distributed nationwide. But the roads are in such bad shape-and repairs so slow-that a single truck takes two to three days to enter and leave. Many trucks break down, and drivers refuse to enter. This is severely disrupting fertiliser supply and paralysing port-based businesses."

Truck driver Shipon Hossain added, "Driving here is a nightmare. Many vehicles get stuck after their axles break. A trip on this route means being stuck in jams for two to three days."

Alfaz Hossain, a driver for Garai Paribahan on the Khulna-Kushtia route, said, "The trip should take about three to three and a half hours, but now it takes six to seven. It's costing us more than we earn."

Golam Kibria, executive engineer of RHD, said that 18-20 km of the Jashore-Khulna

highway will be rebuilt with RCC concrete. "About 5 km has been completed, 2.3 km is under construction, and proposals for another 4 km have been sent to the ministry," he said, adding that the first 4 km of work is expected to be completed by October this year.

He also mentioned that work on the eight-lane Jashore-Jhenaidah highway and the six-lane Jashore-Narail road is progressing. "Once these development projects are completed, this long-standing suffering will finally come to an end," he added.

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