Lalmonirhat-Burimari road unusable

OUR CORRESPONDENT
LALMONIRHAT, Sept 17: The highway connecting Lalmonirhat with Burimari land port has become unusable and risky for vehicular movement.
Potholes have developed and carpeting has worn out at least in 17 points of the 100-kilometre road. But hundreds of vehicles, especially cargo trucks, have to ply the highway every day, risking road crashes.
If it rains, the highway turns riskier for traffic movement, said a local.
Burimari is the second largest land port in Bangladesh. The country imports stones for construction work from Bhutan and India using this port.
A good number of passengers from Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Bhutan use the land port every day for their entry and exit point.
A young Bangladeshi tourist, Swapon, who recently visited India, said, "The condition of this highway is truly awful. Some points of Aditmari, Hatibandha and Patgram upazilas have just turned unusable for vehicles."
Patients are the worst sufferers while travelling through this road, he added.
Mizanur Rahman, a local truck driver, said, "I used to transport stones from Burimari to Dhaka. But now, I don't want to do so due to miserable condition of the road."
Shifiqul, a battery-run auto-rickshaw driver, said, "The highway has become accident-prone. At least one or two road crashes take place on this route every day."
He demanded the authorities concerned repair the road immediately.
Khalid Saifullah Shardar, Executive Engineer of Roads and Highways Department in Lalmonirhat admitted the poor condition of the highway and said, "The repair work of the road will begin very soon."
"Nearly 15 kilometres of the highway will be repaired spending Tk 500 million (50 crores). We have already instructed the contractor to start the work immediately," he added.
ahasnathrana@yahoo.com