Incomplete for 10 yrs
Residents of around 50 villages in Santhia and Faridpur upazilas of the district are suffering immensely as the construction of a bridge over the Boral river at Naranpur-Sonahara point has not been completed in the last 10 years.
Executive Engineer of Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) in Faridpur Md Mizanur Rahman told this correspondent that the construction of the bridge in Pungli union has been delayed due to the negligence of the construction firms.
“Two construction firms left the work without finishing it. LGED authorities fined them a total of Tk 40 lakh according to the government rule, but those firms filed cases against LGED, causing a delay in the work,” the LGED engineer said.
Construction firm Sarkar Golam Mohammad Company started building the 180-metre-long bridge in March 2008, but stopped the work without giving any reason. The work order was then given to Amin Traders and construction work resumed in March 2012 with an estimated cost of Tk 5 crore, but they also stopped the work.
LGED later issued the work order in 2016 to NM (JV) of Bera in Pabna for finishing construction of the bridge, after revising the project cost to Tk 2.42 crore. The work is going on now.
Locals told this correspondent that they face difficulties to go to the upazila headquarters due to the lack of a bridge.
"Every day, I along with other schoolboys cross the under construction bridge amid the risk to go to our school in the upazila headquarters,” Class X student Abdur Rashid of Punglia village in Faridpur upazila said. Their sufferings mount during the rainy season, he added.
The bridge is very much needed for over one lakh people of around 50 villages in Santhia and Faridpur upazilas as it is their only way to go to others places.
Five out of six spans of the bridge have already been completed and they hope to finish the work within this year as the construction work is proceeding quickly, engineer Mizan said.
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