Road damaged a week after construction

Just a week after construction of the three-kilometre portion of an important road in Kishoreganj upazila the carpeting wore away, raising question about the quality of the work.

According to the upazila Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) Office, a tender was floated to construct the three-kilometre portion of the road, stretching from the upazila headquarters to the recreation park Vinnaya Jagat, under Rural Roads Protection and Maintenance Project four months ago.

Nilphamari based construction farm Tahsin Construction got the Tk 1 crore work order and completed the construction work at the end of last month.

During a recent visiting to the area this correspondent saw surface of the newly constructed road got damaged at different points.

Labourers, engaged by the contractor concerned, were seen removing the rubbles from the surface of the road to avert public outrage.

Sexagenarian Jamshed Ali of Musha village said they noticed use of substandard construction materials from the beginning.

The ground development work was not done properly as there are many potholes on the surface of the road, another villager Enamul Huque said.

Locals alleged that lack of monitoring by the officials concerned is one of the major reason for such low quality work.

When asked, Mozaffar Hossain, owner of Tahsin Construction, denied the allegation of low quality work and said the construction work was done as per schedule.

LGED Sub Assistant Engineer Jogobandhu Roy, who did the monitoring job, said the damage occurred due to plying of over-loaded trucks.

Nilphamari LGED Executive Engineer Sujon Kumar Kor said he told the contractor concerned to repair the damaged portions.