15 makeshift bridges on two km road
Awful condition of the two-kilometre-long road, connecting Charipara village and Kalapara upazila headquarters, along Ramnabad river has been causing suffering to the villagers for the last two years.
Several thousand people of Charipara village, including school and college goers, are compelled to use the brick-built road every day, as it the only way of communication to the upazila headquarters, villagers said.
Moreover, in an attempt to ease their communication trouble, villagers built at least 15 makeshift wooden or bamboo bridges to cross the road.
Local people have been using the road since Water Development Board (WDB) built the embankment on the bank of Ramnabad river in the 1980s.
Many villages said the brick-built road was very much usable once, but its condition started getting worse after nearly half of the road was washed away due to erosion by the Ramnabad river about two years back.
Villagers later erected at least 15 makeshift bridges at different parts of the damaged road to resume communication, Abul Hossain of the village said, adding that it takes nearly an hour to cross the road now, whereas, earlier it took only 10 minutes.
“Our school going children suffer the most,” local resident Abdul Mannan Gazi said, adding that the trouble increases more during the rainy season when tidal surge enters the village through the damaged portion of the dyke.
Lalua Union Parishad (UP) Chairman Shawkat Hossain said he raised the issue at the upazila parishad coordination meeting on several occasions, but to no effect.
Moreover, the upazila parishad asked me to repair the damaged road from the UP fund, the UP chairman added.
WDB (Kalapara Circle) Executive Engineer Mohammad Shahjahan Siraj said they cannot take any step to repair the embankment at present as the area is under process of acquisition for Payra Sea Port.
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