‘Officials come and go, bridge remains incomplete’

People of  Mogholhat  union in Lalmonirhat Sadar upazila have been aggrieved over the authority's failure to complete the bridge over the Ratnai river for a long time.

If the construction work is incomplete, they have to suffer in the coming monsoon, they said.

Locals say the circumstance doesn't change due to the negligence of the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) authorities and contractor.

Quader Ali, a 60-year-old farmer from Megharam village, said, "The LGED engineer comes, assures us that the bridge will be completed this month, then the next, but even after years went by, the bridge remains incomplete," he said. 

Monindra Nath Roy (65), a farmer from Durakuti village, echoed the same. "We've been hearing that the bridge would be completed soon for the last six and a half years but it is still under construction."

Mogholhat UP Chairman Habibur Rahman told The Daily Star that the work is now getting delayed to complete the road connecting the bridge.

Although three LGED executive engineers have been transferred, the bridge has not yet been made operational, he said.

Contacted, Manjur Quader Elahi, executive engineer of Lalmonirhat LGED, said construction of the 120-metre-long and eight-metre-wide bridge began in September 2016 at a cost of  Tk 6.20 crore. A contract was signed to complete the bridge by May 2018.

The contractor has so far missed 10 deadlines, he informed. 

"Construction of the bridge's main infrastructure was completed in November 2021," he said.

"We are trying to construct a connecting road to make the bridge work complete before monsoon," he said.