Risky ride on abandoned bridge
Although it was declared abandoned nearly 12 years ago, the bridge on the Gahinkhali Canal in Patuakhali's Rangabali upazila is yet to be removed or reconstructed.
meanwhile, several thousand residents of eight villages under Chhota Baishdia union have continued their risky ride on the awfully dilapidated bridge, that connects the union with the upazila headquarters, as authorities failed to make any alternative arrangement in all these years.
Besides, Local Government and Engineering Department (LGED) declared the 65-metre-long and two-metre-wide bridge abandoned about 12 years ago, but no step has been taken to reconstruct it to ease communication for its users.
Finding no alternative, villagers set wooden pillars and tree logs in place of the decaying iron pillars and set up a wooden platform on the damaged structure to make it usable.
In order to facilitate road communication between Rangabali Sadar and Chhota Baishdia unions, LGED constructed the 65-metre-long iron structured bridge in 1990.
Although LGED renovated the bridge for the first time in 2002, later declared it risky in 2012, considering its ramshackle state.
One of the local residents Shakeel Ahmed said although vehicular movements through the dilapidated bridge was suspended long ago, pedestrians still use the bridge risking their lives.
Abbas Hawladar, a grocer at Baherchar Bazar, said earlier many people from the nearby areas used to come to the market, but since traffic movement through the bridge stopped the number has drastically fall.
Headteacher at Rangabali Model Secondary School Nasir Uddin said hundreds of students from three villages -- Gahinkhali, Chatlakhali and Purba Chatlakhali -- use the ramshackle bridge to came to the institution every day amid risk of accidents.
Acting Chhota Baishdia Union Parishad (UP) Chairman Kamal Pasha said about 2,000 residents, including school and college going students, cross the dangerous bridge every day.
The authorities concerned should reconstruct or replace the bridge with a new one as soon as possible in order to ease the communication trouble.
Rangabali Sadar UP Chairman Saiduzzaman Mamun said LGED declared the bridge risky about 12 years ago, but did not take any initiative to construct a new bridge there due to unknown reason. Rangabali LGED Upazila Engineer Habibur Rahman said they have already sent a proposal to the higher authorities to construct a new bridge on the Gahinkhali Canal.
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