Dangerous deterrence
A photograph published in the front page of this newspaper yesterday showed a most bizarre state of a Bailey bridge on the Savar-Bhakurta road. In a bid to stop heavy vehicles from using the bridge, the authorities removed a part of its metal floor creating a sizeable pit midway on the bridge. They then raised the edges around the missing section, hoping that would be enough to prevent anyone from falling into the canal below.
This is one of the most absurd things we have seen in recent memory. If the authorities believe the bridge is unfit for heavy vehicles, we fully support them preventing heavy vehicles from using it. But couldn't they have thought of something better? Something that did not involve leaving a death trap in the middle of the very bridge they are apparently trying to make safer. Is this really the best they could think of? Or were these steps taken without considering what the consequences would be, and without bothering to put in the effort to find better alternatives?
Either way, instead of leaving a random hole in the middle of the bridge, the authorities could just narrow the bridge's entry points, and do so in a way that will work long term—which means not allowing heavy vehicles to find easy ways around it.
There must be other solutions too that can be implemented without tinkering with the bridge itself. And we call on the authorities to put in a bit more extra effort this time to find and properly implement them.
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