Two years’ deadline over, LGED wants 2 years more

The deadline to complete construction of the bridge on the Kaliganga river in Pirojpur ended in November last year, but without any visible structure at the site, the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) claims that 15 percent of the work has been done.

The work order for Pirojpur's longest bridge to be built under LGED was awarded to Navana Construction Ltd, with an estimated cost of over Tk 115 crore.

The bridge will have a width of ten metres and there will be 1,200 metres of approach road on both ends -- at Kalakhali village in Pirojpur Sadar upazila and Chandkathi village in Nesarabad upazila.

When the construction work of the 600 metre-long bridge started in April of 2018, people on both sides, especially residents of six unions in Nesarabad upazila, were delighted as their long wait for direct road communications with the district headquarters would end soon.    

But to the frustration of the locals, more than two years after the work started, they still cannot see any sign of development or any structure on either side of the Kaliganga river, said Julfikar Ali Khan, a member of Kalakhali Union Parishad in Pirojpur Sadar.  

The bridge would bring huge relief to people in six unions of Nesarabad as they would be able to save precious time during medical emergencies or while transporting critical patients to hospitals in Pirojpur town, said Tarikul Islam, a member of Guarekha Union Parishad in Nesarabad upazila.

Locals said the work on the bridge had been going on at a snail's pace from the beginning and there had been no work at the site for the past several months.

However, when contacted, LGED Executive Engineer in Pirojpur, Sushanta Ranjan Roy, said the construction work only slowed down due to the Covid-19 situation.

A request to extend the deadline by a couple more years has been sent to the higher authorities and they hope to finish the work within the extended period, he added.