Repair of a 300-foot stretch of the Hasadaha-Mahespur road — an important link between Jibannagar upazila of Chuadanga and Mahespur upazila of Jhenaidah — has stalled for a long time on various pretexts, causing suffering for thousands of people in the two upazilas. Students, office-goers, traders, farmers and vehicles use the road daily, but the delay has made hardship a constant companion.
A visit to the site showed the section under repair riddled with holes of all sizes. Even light rain leaves the whole road knee-deep in water and mud, making it impossible to tell where the potholes end and the road begins. Motorcycles, battery-run auto-rickshaws, vans and other vehicles splash mud on pedestrians and ruin their clothes, and minor accidents happen often.
Forman Ali, a schoolteacher from Hasadaha village, said: “I travel this road every day to my workplace, Jibannagar Government Secondary Girls’ School. Repair began nearly three years ago but is still not finished. People in the two upazilas suffer constantly. We demand the work be finished quickly.”
Motiar Rahman, a former member of Hasadaha Union Parishad, said with some anger: “I have never before seen it take more than three years to build a mere 300 feet of road. The contractor started the work after a long delay, but there has been serious irregularity and corruption in it. With the small remaining work unfinished, thousands of local people suffer, yet no one seems to be watching.”
Several residents allege that, despite the long work stoppage, there is no visible progress from the contractor, and the monsoon has worsened the suffering. They have called for urgent intervention to remove illegal structures and complete the repair in the public interest.
Locals say finishing the repair of this important road quickly would ease travel for people in Mahespur and Jibannagar upazilas, reduce accident risk and end long-standing suffering.
The contractor, Abdul Wahed, could not be reached for comment; he did not answer repeated calls to his mobile phone.
Jibannagar Upazila Engineer Al Amin said there are plans to build drains on both sides of the road along with repairing the 300-foot stretch. But the work cannot progress because of delays in getting permission to build the drains and the failure to remove several brick shops built on government land at the site.
“We have discussed removing the illegal structures with those concerned several times,” he said. “Once the shops are removed, the repair and drain construction will resume quickly. The monsoon is delaying the work further at present.”
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report