Narrow roads sorrow of townspeople

Traffic congestion on all roads in the district headquarters of Gaibandha has taken a chronic turn and the townspeople are the worst sufferer of the situation.

The town’s narrow roads, built during the British era, remain congested all day long with all sorts of vehicles. But till date, no visible work was done to widen or overhaul the road network in the town, according to locals.

Although personnel from traffic department of police are deployed at many spots in the town, the situation remain unchanged.

Long tailbacks of buses, trucks, three-wheelers, rickshaws, motorbikes and even power tillers and pushcarts are seen almost all throughout the day on the town’s major thoroughfare DB Road, which connects with national highway at Palashbari.

Last year, a funding of Tk 157 crore was allocated for converting the DB Road into four lanes. Although work order was issued to the project contractor and land acquisition for the work completed already, the actual work on the road did not start yet, they also alleged.

The road is to be extended up to Balashi ferry terminal, six kilometres off Gaibandha town, to establish communication with Bahadurabad ferry terminal in Jamalpur across the Jamuna river.

Asaduzzaman, executive engineer of Roads and Highways Department in Gaibandha, said out of the total allocated funds for the work, they received Tk 53 crore for land acquisition so far.

The construction phase will start within the next two months after receiving the fund allocated for construction work, he added.