A broken bridge has not been repaired in Katiadi of Kishoreganj district in 3 years. There is no initiative of the Upazila administration and the elected public representative to repair or construct a 30-metre bridge. If there is the slightest rain fall in the area, education and development in the area becomes hampered and disrupted.
At the same time, the people of the 4 villages suffer extreme miseries. The bridge was constructed on the Manikkhali Pachpara canal of the Upazila eight years ago. Now the people of the area are just shocked to see the ruins of the bridge which was broken by a little rain.
According to sources, the bridge was constructed by the Relief Department collapsed in the fiscal year 2012-13.The bridge was constructed at a cost of Tk 30 lakh. The bridge collapsed due to unplanned and substandard materials without its land survey, water flow survey and soil testing. After the bridge was demolished, a house along the bridge collapsed. No more bridges were built there. For a long time, the fragmented section of the bridge has been lying like this. People from all professions, including school children, are suffering today.
On the sarajamine, it is seen that ordinary people and students are traveling along this broken bridge. Someone stopped the motorcycle over the bridge and crossed the bridge. Locals said that thousands of people from three more villages, including Pachpara village, are suffering after the bridge collapsed.
Hriday Chandra Sarkar of Paschapara village said that, through this broken bridge, children walk to schools and madrasah. People in the area travel about 3 km to the upazila. Talking to some of the BRAC school students, they said that they had to walk to school because of a bridge. The rickshaw, hello bike and CNG do not operate due to lack of bridge.
Chandpur UP Chairman Mahtab Uddin said the bridge collapsed due to poor working of the contractor. Due to this, miseries of thousands of people in Debalarkanda and Pachpara villages have increased. Earlier, rickshaw-vans used to operate. Not long after the bridge collapsed, no initiative was taken to build a new bridge.
Upazila Local Engineering Department (LGED) officer Shah Alam said the bridge was constructed in an unplanned manner. As a result, the bridge collapsed in a short time. However, the official said the process was underway to repair the broken bridge, which was included in two projects.
A.K.M Amiruzzaman, Executive Engineer of Kishoreganj LGED said, the bridge was constructed in a project under the Department of Relief and Rehabilitation in Fiscal Year 2012-13. Three years ago the bridge collapsed. It has been proposed to construct the bridge. Once the proposal is passed, we will start the work.