The bridge built over Teesta River in Ulipur Municipality of Kurigram has collapsed and turned into a death trap. After nearly 4 years of dilapidated condition, no effective action has been taken by the concerned authorities. Standing on the verge of collapse at any moment. More than 10,000 people from 2 unions including Ward No. 4 of the municipality are crossing this bridge at risk every day.
It is known that this bridge was built on Teesta River in 1966, 56 years ago. After a long movement and struggle, under the Prime Minister's Delta Plan program at a cost of Tk 16 crore 97 lakh excavation work started on Buri Teesta River on March 13, 2019 with a width of about 80 feet and a length of 31 km and completed it in the same year. Buri Teesta is a branch of river Teesta. After the excavation, when the river water flowed, some parts of the first floor of the bridge collapsed. A few days later, one wing of the bridge collapsed and fell into the river, and the remaining three wings suffered severe cracks. Which is now slowly becoming impassable. Pedestrians including school and college students are constantly being victims of accidents while moving. Due to the poor condition of the bridge, no heavy vehicles are able to ply through this road due to the bamboo poles buried at the entrance of the bridge. As a result, it has become very difficult to transport agricultural products produced by the farmers of that area, to go anywhere and to carry emergency patients.
College students of the area Saurabh, Enamul, Nurannabi, Shamim and many other pedestrians have made a strong demand to the local public representative and the concerned authorities to construct the bridge in a new way and facilitate the movement.
Asaduzzaman Raju, 4th ward councilor of the municipality, said that the municipal engineer, mayor, upazila chairperson and local parliament member have been shown several times for the construction of the bridge and they are assuring that the bridge will be constructed very soon.
Shahinul Islam, chief executive officer of the municipality in charge, said that documents have been sent under various projects to rebuild the bridge.In this regard, Municipal Mayor Mamun Sarkar Mithu said that a letter has been sent to the upper quarters to get money for the construction of the bridge. Since Ulipur Municipality has been upgraded to "A" category on last November 21, it is hoped that the bridge will be constructed soon to ease the inconvenience to the pedestrians.