Nearly 30,000 people of six villages in Gafargaon of Mymensingh face difficulties everyday to cross the Shila River in the upazila as only one boat is at the service of the commuters who have to cross the river everyday for different purposes.
Locals said villagers of Joshora, Bukhra, Muktapara, Atharodana, Shekhbazar and Pathorkata constructed a ramshackle bamboo-bridge over the river, but it broke down recently. Now there are only one ferryboat for general passengers and a rope tied across the river for those who cross it by private boats.
Mozammel, a college student, said it was difficult to cross the Shila River everyday for attending college. Fahad, another student from Muktapara village said he crossed the river on a boat by pulling the rope tied across river.
Helim Uddin, owner of a pharmacy in Shibganj Bazar, said the political leaders promised many times to build a bridge across the river, but they never fulfilled it.
Jamal Uddin, a farmer from Joshora village, said he had to cross the river with his cows used for cultivation as his, and some other farmers’, farmlands were on the other side of the river.
“Chairman and some other well dressed guys take measurements from time to time, but the progress in constructing the bridge never goes beyond that,” complained another farmer Tajul Islam.
UP Chairman Mujibur Rahman said Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) were working on the raelisation of the bridge construction project.
However, Upazila Engineer Tofazzal Hossain said he did not know anything about the construction of bridge across the Shila river.