Public sufferings mount as bridge collapses in Chandpur

OUR CORRESPONDENT

CHANDPUR, Jan 18: Public sufferings have mounted as the dilapidated Roghunathpur Bridge has collapsed recently in Kochua upazila of the district, cutting off road communications with other places of the district.

The bridge connected Hajiganj and Kochua upazilas of the district. It broke down nearly five weeks ago with no reports of causalities.

However, road communications between the two upazilas have been cut off due to the collapse of the concrete bridge.

Local people, especially schoolchildren and patients, are now suffering much due to the breakdown of the bridge.

Local traders are also facing difficulties in transporting goods on the road.

Local people said the concrete bridge over Boaljhuri canal was turned dilapidated mainly for want of proper maintenance work.

Most people of Khilpara, Tarapalla, Rajapur and Perojpur villages of Hajiganj and those of Kadla, Roghunathpur, Teghuria, Debipur, Golbahar, Muradpur, Roghunathpur High School students and teachers, Borigaon and other adjacent villages of Kochua Upazila used this bridge for easy and shortcut communications for years together.

Hearing the collapse incident of the bridge, Hajiganj UNO Taposh Shil sent an engineer to the spot.

LGED Engineer Azizul Huque has said the bridge does not exist in our jurisdiction as it is in Kochua Upazila.

But, despite repeated calls, the cell phone of Kochua UZ LGED Engineer Abdul Alim Lytton was found switched off.However, local elites, including shaque Bepari, Rashid Khan and Mokhlesur Rahman, have alleged that as the bridge is located in the bordering areas of both Hajiganj and Kochua upazilas, the authorities concerned are indifferent to it.

Many other concrete bridges over the Boaljhuri canal were repaired and renovated from time to time, but unfortunately this bridge of public interest did not get any touch of development as yet despite many requests and appeals from the local people.

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