People suffer as bridge lies incomplete
Contractor leaves the work midway in Nilphamari’s Kishoreganj
Around three lakh people of Nilphamari Sadar and Kishoreganj upazilas are badly suffering as an important bridge over the Charalkata river at Parerhat on Kishoreganj-Babrijhar road has remained incomplete after the contractor concerned left, keeping the work half done over a year ago.
SM Keramat Ali Nannu, Kishoreganj upazila engineer of Local Government and Engineering Department (LGED), said they called tender to construct the 181-metre-long girder bridge over the Charalkata river on Kishoreganj-Babrijhar road leading to Dhaka-Panchagarh highway at Birganj at an estimated cost of Tk 15.12 crore in early 2017.
In May 2017, Jashore-based construction firm Islam Traders got the work order as the lowest bidder, offering to do the job for Tk 12.70 crore.
“As per the condition, the work was to be complete by June 2018. After completing only 40% of the work, the contractor left, six months before expiry of the scheduled time, without informing us,” said the upazila LGED engineer.
Visiting the site on Thursday, this correspondent found that six pair of pillars are standing in the main river area while two abutments on both ends remain half done.
On contact, the construction firm’s site manager of Nayem Islam said they had to stop the work as locals created hindrance.
He, however, refused to elaborate when asked what he meant by the hindrance.
“In absence of a bridge, several lakh people of two upazilas have to cover additional 20 km distance for going to Dinajpur and Nilphamari,” said Rezaul Islam Rimon, local member of Nitai union parishad.
Executive Engineer of Nilphamari LGED Belal Hossain said, “Due to our strict monitoring, the contractor’s attempt to do use inferior quality materials failed and at one stage he left the work after withdrawing a portion of the bill.”
“My office sent several letters to the construction firm, asking them to complete the work but to no effect. Now we’re preparing to cancel the contact and forfeit the security money. Hopefully we will call a tender soon to complete the work.”
Anwar Hossain, a prominent contractor in Nilphamari, also echoed the LGED official’s version that the Jashore-based contractor left the work after his failed attempt to gain high profit by doing low quality work.