Kachua regional highway needs urgent repair
Signboard Bazar to Kachua road, a 7.5-kilometre-long regional highway that connects Kachua upazila with the Bagerhat district headquarters, is one of the busiest in the district. But it has been in a deplorable state for the past one year.
Inhabitants of Chitalmari upazila also uses this vital road for their communications with the district town.
“Vehicular movement on the road is extremely hazardous and time consuming as it is riddled with hundreds of potholes that remain covered with water and mud,” said Niaz Iqbal, a resident of Kachua upazila and president of Kachua Press Club.
A large number of trucks, buses and other vehicles ply the road daily and people, especially from Kachua, have been suffering immensely because they have to use this dilapidated road every day to transport various goods including agricultural products, he added.
Samir Baran Paik, a retired teacher from the same upazila, said, “It’s the only regional highway to reach the district headquarters from Kachua. Trucks loaded with goods for food warehouses or stores in Kachua Sadar often get stuck in the mud.”
Moreover, the general public, especially patients and students have been suffering due to the road’s poor condition, he also said.
College student Jannatul Ferdous said the situation turns for the worse in the rainy season when rickshaws and other three-wheelers tip over after hitting hidden potholes filled with rainwater. Such accidents are now frequent on the road.
Besides, vehicles speeding over the submerged potholes often splash pedestrians with dirty muddy water and ruin their clothes, she added.
Bayezid Sheikh, from Narendrapur area, said “It’s difficult even to walk on the sides of the road and the pedestrians always have to wary of accidents on the road that becomes muddy during the monsoon.”
Contacted, Nazrul Islam, sub divisional engineer of Roads and Highways Department in Bagerhat, said they have already undertaken a project to widen the road and replace its bailey bridges with new concrete bridges at a cost of Tk 30 crore.
The work order for the project was issued on January 21, with an estimated completion date set for June 30, 2020.
The contractor has already been filling up the potholes with brick chips and sand, he added.
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