Commuters suffer on shabby Lalmonirhat roads

The 5.53-kilometre-long Mahendranagar-Mostofi road in Lalmonirhat Sadar upazila has developed a number of potholes, adding to commuters' sufferings as well as raising the number of accidents recently.

Due to the potholes in at least eight points, road accidents have become regular in the last four weeks.

Although, Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) renovate the important road at a cost of Tk 4.35 crore only a year ago, it has become guardian less as none of the authorities concerned are taking steps to repair it.

As the 5.53-km road connects Lalmonirhat-Burimari highway with Rangpur-Kurigram highway, all types of vehicles ply the road as transport workers prefer to use it as shortcut.

Lalmonirhat LGED Executive Engineer SM Zakiur Rahman said as the road connects two important highways it was handed over to Roads and Highways Department (RHD) in November last year.

Now RHD is the sole authority in terms of repairing and maintaining the road, he said, adding that the road was repaired and maintained by the LGED from 2002 to 2017.

Meanwhile, Lalmonirhat RHD Executive Engineer Ali Noorayen said although the road was handed over to RHD, no gazette was published in this regard yet so they can not take steps to repair it.

Steps will be taken in this regard soon as RHD high officials have visited the major spots, the engineer said.

A trucker from Bogra Nazrul Islam, 45, said due to the small and large potholes in many places they have to suffer a lot while plying their vehicles on the road, but no steps have been taken yet to repair the damaged road.

Trader Ali Hossain, 52, of Mahendranagar area in Sadar upazila, alleged that the road, which was reconstructed only a year ago, has become too risky for its users as the repair work was not done properly.

Although, local people protested the reconstruction work of the road using substandard materials, the authorities concerned did not take any steps due to unknown reason, he further added.

“We don't want to know who is supposed to repair the road, all we know is that the government is responsible for repairing it,” schoolteacher Mansur Ali, 58, of Mostofi area said.