Road work stopped as ‘substandard’ materials used

Construction work of Hushorkhali-Islampur road in Moheshpur upazila has been stopped for using ‘substandard’ materials.

The construction work of the one km road was supposed to be completed by December 30 as per schedule.

The villagers have long been demanding a concrete road but they are now very worried about whether this road work will be completed within this time frame.

Locals said seeing the low-quality work and use of substandard construction materials it seems the road will not last long, so they recently urged the officials of Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) to stop the construction work.

Later, LGED authorities stopped the road construction work.

Upazila LGED floated a tender for construction of the road on October 31.

Ms Jakaullah and Brothers, a construction firm, got the work order of Tk 60.77 lakh and started the road work on November 5.

The construction work was going on using low quality materials, said Siraj Ali of Hushorkhali village in the upazila.

Wishing anonymity, an official of Moheshpur LGED said the authority stopped the road work as the contractor used low quality bricks and sand in the construction work.

Moheshpur LGED engineer Md Selim Hossain said earlier, the contractor was warned several times to improve the quality of the construction work but he did not pay any heed to their words.

Finding no other alternative, they stopped the road construction work two days ago, he said.

Legal action will be taken against the contractor if he does not improve the quality of the construction work.

Contractor Md Jakaullah refuted the allegation of using substandard materials in the road construction work.