Left incomplete for 5 years
About five lakh people in two upazilas are suffering as a bridge, connecting Nilphamari Sadar and Kishoreganj upazila, over the Charalkatha river at Par Ghat area has remained incomplete for nearly five years.
According to Nilphamari Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), Jashore based construction firm Islam Traders got the work order to construct the 181-metre-long and 9.80-metre-wide bridge on Nilphamari-Kishoreganj road with an estimated cost of Tk 15.12 crore in 2017.
The construction firm was asked to complete the work by June 2018, but after completing only 40 percent of the work, contractor left the work.
Later, following several warning letters from the LGED, the contractor started the work again, seeking six month time extension. But, the firm missed that fresh deadline too.
In the meantime, authorities concerned extended the length of the bridge up to 252-metre, revised the budget and gave the work to another construction firm Nil Sagor Group to support the previous firm.
Although, LGED extended the work deadline for three times, with the latest in June this year, most of the work still lies incomplete.
While visiting the site on Monday, this correspondent saw pedestrians, bikers and bicyclists were crossing the river by boats, while traders and farmers are compel to travel an additional 20 kilometre to go to nearby markets.
Sumon Biswas, site engineer of Islam Traders, said the work was delayed due to interference of some local influential and then the lockdown.
Nilphamari LGED Executive Engineer Sujon Kumar Kor said they were conducting strict monitoring so that the bridge construction work can be done with the stipulated time.
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