Substandard materials used in road work
Substandard materials are being used for making a one and a half kilometre road at a cost of Tk 80 lakh under Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) at Sreekhata village in Kaliganj upazila.
Villagers protested strongly against the substandard work and stopped the construction a week ago. They demanded use of standard materials as specified in the schedule.
Azgarul Islam, 56, a schoolteacher of Sreekhata village, alleged that the contractor used very poor quality bricks instead of first class bricks for constructing the road from Sreekhata Sonamari to Khodorpar village by 'managing' some LGED officials.
“If the road is constructed with substandard materials, it will be damaged immediately,” said trader Nurul Islam, 50, of Sonamari village. “We are united here in the village to see construction of the road with standard materials according to the schedule, otherwise we will not allow the construction firm to restart the work,” he added.
Kaliganj LGED Surveyor Aynul Haque said the tender for construction of the 1.5 km road in the village was called in November last year and contractor Abdul Hakim was given work order of Tk 80 lakh in December. Sub-contractor Atoar Rahman Majhi started construction in July this year.
Hakim said Atoar got the contract using his (Hakim's) license. “I'm not responsible for this substandard work,” he said.
“As the sub-contractor is a brick kiln owner, he is using rejected bricks from his kiln to construct the road,” said Kartik Chandra Roy, 48, of Khodorpar village.
Atoar said he did not use rubbish bricks to construct the road. The bricks used were of low quality as first class bricks were not available in the kiln at the time. “Some local people demanded illegal toll from me, but I refused to pay a single taka. So they stopped the work to take revenge,” he added.
Surveyor Aynul said three letters have been served to the sub-contractor in the last two weeks, asking him to use standard materials for construction of the road.
“Departmental action will be taken if the contractor does not respond to LGED's letters within the current month,” he said, refuting the allegation that LGED officials are involved with the contractor.
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