About 5 lakh residents of Phulchhari and Saghata upazilas have been suffering as the Bonarpara-Saghata road became almost unusable because of not having any repair works of it for long.
Consequently, accidents repeatedly were taking place in the potholes of the road and wasting valuable time to cross it.
It was learnt that the 30km road stretches to the district town via Phulchhari upazila and there is no alternative road except it to reach the town. In 1992, the road had been paved with asphalt and since then it remained without any renovation task.
Sources at Roads and Highways Department (RHD) said 25km of the road is very poor and it takes 1-1.5 hours to cross in lieu of the required time of 45 minutes.
A local cultural activist, namely Jakirul Islam, said the road has turned into an electoral issue during elections while all candidates seek votes from the residents on promise of renovating the road assuming power and finally it remains as their lip service.
A college student named Ziaul Hoque echoed the voice of Jakirul.
In this regard, Lal Miah, a local rickshaw-puller, said he has to spend Tk30 from his income of Tk100 to repair his vehicle because of the unbearable jerks in the potholes of the road.
The upazila’s Jumarbari UP Chairman Mahfuzar Rahman said the authorities concerned have not paid any heed to their repeated applications for repairing the road.
Acknowledging the road’s sorry state, Gaibanda RHD Executive Engineer Mahbub Alam Khan said: “The road has remained without any renovation due to budget crunch. Tk10 crore is needed for the road while there is an allotment of Tk3 crore only for the whole district at present and that is why a tender of Tk80 lakh has been primarily floated just for the spots that have already went into very poor condition.”
While the renovation works of the rest spots of the road would depend on further budget allocation from the state authorities, the engineer continued.
