Lying broken for 18 months

Around 50 thousand people of 20 villages are suffering as a bridge over the Sanchai river on Narikelbaria-Tikaribazar road in Jhenidah Sadar upazila has been lying broken for the last one and a half years.

Locals have made a bamboo bridge which pedestrians, motorcyclists and bicyclists can use by paying money.

But larger vehicles going from Jhenidah to Magura via Narikelbaria-Tikaribazar road have to use longer route as the bridge constructed by local LGED 22 years back over the Sanchai river in 1994 broke down on June 6, 2016.

The farmers are incurring losses as they cannot easily transport their produces to markets.

People of different villages including Jitore, Miakundo, Kushobaria, Dhananjoypur, Muktarampur, Marninda, Narikelbaria, Tikari, Dahkhola, Dighirpar, Laxmipur, Malanchi, Bangsha and Beruel use the bridge.

Besides, this road runs to Magura district via Narikelbaria-Tikari Bazar from Jhenidah district town.

Visiting the bridge on Friday morning, this correspondent found people crossing the bamboo bridge set with wooden planks. Each individual and non-motorised rickshaw and rickshaw-van has to pay Tk 3 while small motorised vehicles like motorcycles and CNG-run three-wheelers Tk 10.

“We are incurring loss due to problem in carrying vegetables after the bridge broke,” said vegetable trader Abdus Salam.

Abir Hossain, a student of Tikari High School, said it is a bit burdensome for students to pay regularly for crossing the river on the bridge.

Abdul Malek, LGED executive engineer in Jhenidah, said, “We have invited tender and the construction work of the bridge will hopefully start soon.”