A large
number of people have continued risky ride on the awfully the worse for wear
bailey bridge over the Nautara River near Nautara Bazar in Dimla upazila on
Dalia-Sardarer Hat road as authorities failed to make any alternative bargain.
Local
Government and Engineering Department (LGED) acknowledged the 75-metre-long
bridge forsaken three years ago but no step has been taken to rebuild it to
ease communication for people of Dimla and Jaldhaka upazilas of Nilphamari
district and a part of Lalmonirhat district to go to Panchagarh and Thakurgaon
districts via Domar upazila.
Visiting the
bridge on Friday, this correspondent saw signboard on both ends of the bridge,
asking pedestrians and drivers of vehicles not to move through the risky
bridge.
Four steel
plates at north-east end are missing while the other plates, corroded due to
overuse, are loosely connected with the iron edge.
"The enduring
plates of the bridge are virtually detached from the frame as many nuts and
bolts are missing and welding materials are broken. Serious accident may occur
if any of the plates slightly tilts or moves when a hiker or means of
transportation crosses the bridge," said Nurul Islam, former chairman of
Nautara union parishad (UP).
Present UP
Chairman Mosharaf Hossain Mintu said mechanised vehicles no longer use the
bridge but people have continual passing through the bridge on foot, rickshaws
and bicycles amid risk.
"About
two years ago a man with his wife and child was ephemeral the bridge on a
motorbike when one end of a loose build up plate tilted, causing the three
riders fall into the river. The man and the child survived but the woman died
on the spot," said Abdur Rahman, 35, a resident of Nautara Bazar area.
There are
often accidents, especially next to night, as people find it difficult to see
the risky spots on the bridge, locals said.
People of
some unions of neighbouring Lalmonirhat district and also residents of
Jhunagachh Chapani, Khalisha Chapini, Sutibari, Nautara, Gayabari and other places
of Dimla upazila use this road and bridge to go to Domar and Dimla upazilas and
some areas of Panchagarh and Thakurgaon districts, said Abu Jar Rahman, former
president of Palli Bidyut Samity, Nilphamari, also a resident of Nautara
village.
"They
are facing difficulties as they have to cover additional 30 kilometres to use
the alternative way. Locals brought the matter to the become aware of of LGED
offices in Dimla and Nilphamari but to no effect," he said.
When
contacted, LGED engineer in Dimla upazila Shyamapado Ghosh said, "Roads
and Highways Department handed over the 75-metre-long bridge to LGED in 2003.
All the steel plates are now so badly damaged that the bridge has become unfit
for repair. Earlier we declared the bridge abandoned and hung a signboard, asking
people not to use the bridge."
"We
have sent a project proposal to the higher authorities to construct a new
bridge to replace the abandoned one at an approximate cost of Tk 2 crore,"
he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment