Tale of a bad road
The 52-km stretch of the road between Bheramara and Kushtia Islamic University on Kushtia-Khulna Highway has been in awful condition for the last one-and-a-half years, causing immense suffering to the commuters.
Kushtia-Khulna Highway is the main link between the between the south-western and northern regions of the country, and around 15,000 vehicles move on it every day.
The road is full of potholes and ditches that are two feet to three feet deep, causing serious accidents almost every day.
“It does not look like a road and is unsafe for travel, but people have to use it at the risk of their lives due to necessity,” said Chandan Kumar Das, an official of Kushtia Islamic University.
He travels 25 km to and from Kushtia town to his office on the university campus every day, he said, adding that around 3,000 to 4,000 students and officials of the university make the journey every day.
“I have no words to describe it. We cannot call it a highway when there is no paving,” said Akhi Khondokar, a student of the university.
“The ditches on the highway are so deep that many vehicles break down every day,” said Harunur Rashid Latif, a bus driver on Khulna-Kushtia route.
The road is a death trap as many accidents have taken place there due to the deep ditches and boulders on it.
According to local sources and newspaper reports, at least 111 people have been killed on this 52 km stretch in the last 15 months.
Construction work of the highway by foreign contractors started in 1995 and ended in 2000. Although it was necessary, no further comprehensive work was done on the highway since then, said Kushtia Division Roads and Highways Executive Engineer Rafiqul Islam.
“We have been doing repair work on the surface only for the last 17 years,” he added.
He said they could not do proper repairing due to the increasing number of vehicles and heavy rainfall in the last few years.
“The heavily loaded trucks break the tarmac on the road and create deep ruts,” he said.
“Now the process of starting sealcoat repair of the road is underway and tender was opened yesterday,” the engineer said, adding that work on the road will be taken up once the process is complete.
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