Repair of shaky Bailey bridge causes sufferings to commuters
The repair work at a Bailey bridge in Tengripara area of Nagarpur upazila in Tangail district has been going on for the last few days keeping vehicular movement suspended there.
As a result, the direct road link between Tangail and Manikganj through the regional highway remained snapped, causing immense sufferings to the passengers.
Workers said the repair work of the damaged still-made deck of the bridge was started on September 16 and it will continue till September 24.
Commuters said not only the Bailey bridge in Tengripara but also conditions of all other 11 Bailey bridges on Tangail-Manikganj road are so bad that these are needed to repair every year.
Of the 55.5-kilometre-long Tangail-Aricha road, 35.5-kilometre area is in Tangail district and the rest in Manikganj, said officials of Roads and Highways Department (RHD) in Tangail.
Starting from Tangail town, the road joins Dhaka-Aricha highway at Borongail of Manikganj after crossing the Dhaleswari River and moving through Delduar and Nagarpur upazilas in Tangail and Doulatpur and Ghior upazilas of Manikganj.
When the road was constructed over two decades ago, the 12 bridges were constructed in Chasha Bhadra, Dhuburia, Ararakumar, Tengripara, Tirsa, Bhalkutia, Barapusha, Thana Intersection, Dhalapara and Khorshed Market areas under Nagarpur, Delduar and Sadar upazilas of Tangail.
Vehicular movement on the road saw a great increase after opening of Dhaleswari Bridge on the road at Elasin in Delduar upazila in 2013 as vehicles no longer needed to cross the river by ferry to go to Aricha.
A number of passenger buses and goods-laden trucks from southern districts use the road to go to different districts including Tangail, Sherpur and Jamalpur while several hundred CNG-run auto-rickshaws use the road daily for local communications.
Movement of a large number of vehicles turned the old Bailey bridges risky and the RHD has set cautionary signs on both ends of the bridges.
Jasiur Rahman Lukon, a rights activist of Nagarpur, said the authorities repair the worn out Bailey bridges more than once every year. As a result, passengers and transport workers on the route suffer a lot.
Repair of shaky bridges also causes waste of public money every year, he said.
"We want construction of permanent bridges at the places of the Bailey bridge and also widening of the road as soon as possible to ease communication between greater Mymensingh region and southern districts through Aricha," he added.
Contacted, Md Moniruzzaman, executive engineer of RHD in Tangail, said a proposal to construct permanent bridges to replace the Bailey bridges and widen the road was already approved by the Planning Commission.
It is now waiting for approval from the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec), he said.