The three dilapidated inter-district routes in Khagrachari are highly hindering road communication and causing heavy suffering to commuters.
Locals fear that the damaged roads may lead to major accidents and loss of lives.
Thousands of potholes have emerged along the routes connecting Matiranga and Tanakkapara, Jaliyapara and Mohalchhari along with, Khagrachari and Panchhari.
Roads and Highways Department (RHD) officials said the 48km Matiranga-Tanakkapara route, the 20km Jaliyapara–Mohalchhari rouute and 24km Khagrachhari-Panchhari route have been deteriorating for the past decade.
The route from Matiranga to the Tanakkapara border is the only route for the people of at least 125 villages, while the routes from Jaliyapara to Mohalchhari and Khagrachhari to Panchhari are the only routes for people of 28 and 35 villages respectively.
Around 15,000-20,000 commuters use the routes to travel to other upazilas and districts of the country.
The condition of the road has deteriorated due to movement of heavy traffic. Lack of repair and hill slides during the recent rainy season also contributed to its current condition.
Chiton Das, a high school teacher from the remote Tabalchhari area, said: “We are suffering due to the poor condition of the road created by the thousands of potholes.”
Muhammad Safar Ali, a villager under the upazila said, “It takes us almost three hours to travel to Matiranga from the border area, whereas it used to take only an hour and half,” adding that government needs to repair the roads without a delay.
“The Jaliyapara-Mohalchhari road has been the only way to travel to Khagrachari since 1987, but over the last decade the road has become unfit due to heavy traffic and lack of supervision from RHD,” said Mohammad Shahjahan Patwary, a retired headmaster of Mohalchhari Pilot High School.
“The journey on Khagrachhari-Panchhari route becomes excruciating as drivers cannot drive in due speed because of the potholes, as a result we reach our destinations in much delay,” said Mohammad Bahar Mia, President of Panchhari Upazila Awami League unit.
Last year in August, Rail and Communication Minister Obaidul Kader visited the three roads. After observing the roads, he directed concerned Secretary and Chief Engineer of RHD to terminate its then Executive Engineer Abdur Rashid and issue a show-cause notice to its Superintendent Engineer Md Shah Noaz for their negligence in duty.
Later in a press briefing, the minister said he was surprised after observing the sorry state of the roads and some bridges that were under construction.
In May this year, Dipankar Talukdar, MP, Ministry of Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs, in a view exchange meeting, at Panchhari, assured people that the RHD will start repair work as soon as possible.
When contacted, Executive Engineer of Khagrachhari RHD Mohammad Ismail Hossain said government had already taken a Tk240m project to reconstruct the three roads.
“We had assigned the contractors in the first week of May in 2011 for reconstructing the Matiranga-Tanakkapara route and Khagrachhari-Panchhari route with Tk85m and Tk80m respectively.”
“But after completing some five km of both the roads, the construction work had to stop due to rainy season and price hike of essentials. One of the contractors said that they would incur huge losses if the project is run with the assigned amounts,” he said.
Mohammad Ismail Hossain also said that the Corps of Engineers of Bangladesh Army took the Jaliyapara-Mohalchhari road under their authority in 1997 and had not reconstructed it yet.
