A contracting firm has abandoned repair work on an important road in Bakshiganj municipality, Jamalpur — running from the Bus Stand Bottala through Old Goruhati to Jabbarganj Bazar — for a year, leaving residents of the upazila in distress.
Thousands of residents are forced to travel this municipal road daily at risk. The danger of accidents is also rising.
According to the upazila engineer’s office, the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) began repair work on the roughly 4.9-kilometer road from Bus Stand Bottala through Old Goruhati to Jabbarganj in the municipal town in late 2024. Under a development project titled “Rehabilitation of Rural Road Infrastructure Damaged by Cyclone Amphan and Floods” for fiscal year 2024-25, a firm called Shawkat Enterprise won the tender for the work at a cost of 28.894 million taka. The firm is owned by a man named Shawkat.
Local residents allege that with the road work halted, municipal residents, including school and college students, face severe daily hardship along the Old Goruhati to Bus Stand road. Even light rain causes water to pool on the road, making travel hazardous.
After beginning work by digging up the road and using substandard aggregate, local residents objected, and the work was left abandoned for an extended period. Rather than finishing the work within the scheduled time, the contractor disappeared. The work had been scheduled for completion in June 2025.
An on-site inspection found the road dug up with only aggregate laid down. With work halted for an extended period, that aggregate has since shifted, creating potholes of various sizes across the road. Even light rain causes water to collect in these potholes. Vehicles and school and college students travel at risk daily. Motorcycles and auto-rickshaws in particular face rising accident risk.
Municipal resident Shariful Islam said: “Before, this road could be used normally. Now, even going to the market or handling daily tasks has become difficult. If it isn’t repaired quickly, the situation will worsen further.”
Battery-powered easy-bike driver Sobuj said: “It’s been nearly two years of hardship driving a rickshaw on this road. To support my wife and children, I have to work hard to earn a living despite the difficulty. They say the contractor dug up the road and fled. We’re now in extreme distress.”
Despite repeated phone calls, the owner of Shawkat Enterprise did not answer, and his comments could not be obtained.
Jamalpur District Engineer Rozdid Ahmed said: “Considering the public suffering, we issued multiple notices to the contractor but could not get construction on the road started. The contractor has been fined and the work order canceled. The tender process will be restarted soon. This is due to the contractor’s negligence.”
The official assured that the canceled tender would be reissued and the work completed quickly.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report