Thousands suffer as road condition awful

Thousands of commuters are badly suffering due to the awful condition of two important roads under the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) in Kulaura upazila of Moulvibazar.

The RHD in 2018 gave a Tk 36-crore work order jointly to Wahid Construction and Spectra International to repair and widen the 12-km-long road from Nabin Chandra High School at Chaumohana in Kulaura upazila town to Jhilerpar in Prithimpasha union of the upazila and the four-km-long road from Robirbazar town to Tilagaon Bazar in Tilagaon union.

The work started in December 2018 with a schedule to complete on June 30 this year but only 40 per cent of the development work of the two roads has been completed in the period.

During a recent visit to the spot, this correspondent learnt that the residents of different areas of Rautgaon, Karmadha, Prithimpasha, Tilagaon, Sharifpur and Hajipur unions of Kulaura use the two roads to travel to the upazila headquarters and Moulvibazar district town.

Vehicles regularly plying the broken road often get damaged, said Arab Ali, joint secretary of CNG autorickshaw transport workers union in Rabirbazar-Kulaura unit, told this correspondent.

"Commuters including teachers, students and traders regularly use the Kulaura -- Rabirbazar road. Usually it would take 20 minutes for a CNG autorickshaw to cross the road but it now takes double the time due to its awful condition," said Abdul Kadir, principal of Ali Amjad School and College.

Drivers also charge extra fare due to the road condition, he said.

Local resident Syed Ashfak Tanvir, general secretary of Robirbazar Club, told this correspondent, "These roads have remained unusable for four to five years. Now it has become more unsuitable due to the unfinished fixing work."

Sahadeb Sutradhar, sub-assistant engineer of the RHD, who is in charge of supervising the road repair work, said 40 percent of the work on the Kulaura-Prithimpasha and Rabirbazar-Tilagaon Bazar roads has been completed.

​Asked about the slow pace of work, engineer Md Asaduzzaman, in-charge of the two contracting companies, said, the road work requires a lot of stones but the supply of stones through LC stopped due to Covid-19 pandemic.

Shahriar Alam, executive engineer of RHD in Moulvibazar, said, "There were some problems in the work of the contractor. Then in wake of the Covid-19 situation, the government extended the tenure of the ongoing work for one year. If the situation improves, the work of the two roads will be completed soon."