Cracks in Teesta bridge link road before inauguration

The link road from Burirhat to Mohipur Bazar, which was built to connect with Second Teesta Bridge in Gangachara upazila of Rangpur, developed cracks soon after completion of the work in Mid-December last year.

Carpeting of the seven-km-long link road, done under greater Rangpur Dinajpur district rural communication and other infrastructure development project, was completed on December 17. Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) implemented the Tk 9.20 crore project.

Residents of Laxmitari union under Gangachara upazila noticed the cracks at different places of the road recently. Besides the cracks, the road has also subsided a little in two or three spots, which happened as heavily loaded vehicles plied the newly constructed road, they added.

Upazila LGED Sub Assistant Engineer Md Masudur Rahman said the road's load stress capacity is around 10 tonnes, as per the project design, but most vehicles plying the road carry goods weighing above 30 tonnes. Earlier, a restriction was imposed on September 12, prohibiting movement of heavy vehicles on the road, but the drivers disregard the restriction, he added.

An engineer in the upazila, seeking anonymity, said the road should have been built for heavy vehicle movement as it is connected with Burimari land port and heavy vehicles are used for transporting goods by road.

Upazila LGED Engineer AZM Ahsan Ullah said he has informed the higher authorities about the matter.

During a visit to the area, this correspondent saw that locals had filled the cracks with sand and earth.

The government took a project to build the Second bridge on the Teesta for establishing better connectivity between Rangpur and Burimari Land Port in Lalmonirhat.

Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) approved the project in 2012. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the construction work on April 12 the same year. The estimated cost was Tk 121 crore.

The 850-metre-long and 9.6-metre-wide Second Teesta Bridge connects Kakina union in Lalmonirhat with Laxmitari union in Gangachara union of Rangpur.

The work of the bridge was to be completed by July 31 in 2014, but the contracted company M/s Navana Construction could not complete the work within the timeframe. Two other deadlines could not be met. The bridge is now expected to be inaugurated in March in 2018.

The bridge will reduce the distance between Lalmonirhat and Rangpur by 50 km, according to the officials of local LGED.