For more than five decades, residents of Sarotia Gazi and Pach Arra villages in Tangail's Nagarpur upazila have suffered from poor road connectivity.
For this reason, the overall development of the area, including education and health, has taken a hit.
Every day, tens of thousands of people from these two villages use the unpaved route connecting Dhunail and Daulatpur via Sarotia Gazi and Pach Arra.
On this four-kilometre stretch, the residents' misery has no bounds. When it rains, locals must trek through muddy water.
In addition, if water enters the canal in the middle of the road during the rainy season, one must cross by boat. Locals suffer on a regular basis as a result of the lack of action taken in fixing the dirt road.
Even 50 years after the country attained independence, no action has been taken to pave this road, despite the fact that the adjacent dirt roads are being paved.
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Local political leaders vow to pave the road ahead of elections, but do nothing once they are elected, complain local residents.
Although the dirt road is hard to traverse in summer due to extreme dust pollution, the situation turns dire during the monsoon when the road is swamped and exceedingly muddy.
Students are often late for school and college, and sick patients loathe this route since they know they will never make it to the hospital on time.
Given the challenges that everyone faces on this road, residents have petitioned the government to take the required steps to develop the unpaved road.
Speaking on the issue, Upazila Chairman Firoz Siddiqui said: “The communication problem between the two villages has been a long-standing one. The union council will not be able to solve this problem with small projects. In order to really develop the communication system here, megaprojects have to be undertaken in the near future.”
