Locals on Thursday (Nov 4) morning stopped the construction work as a huge number of cracks developed across the newly made 384 meters long road, at Kurgaon area of Ashulia in Savar, on the outskirts of the capital.
Local Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) later visited the place along with Upazila Engineer of Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) and asked the contractor to complete the rest of the construction work. The UNO however refused to make any comment to the journalist during the time in this regard.
Upazila LGED Engineer Saleh Hasan Pramik said, “It's not a major issue. Basically, any newly made road has to go through a process called curing that uses jute fibre and water, within three to fout hours after RCC casting. However, the construction company did not do it accordingly and that has caused the cracks. The cracks called ‘Hair Crack’ appeared when the concrete got tighter, and came in touch with sunlight in the morning.”
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Visiting the area, it was found that a huge number of hair cracks have developed in each of the inches across the newly made RCC (Roller Compacted Concrete) based road, and the whole road has become uneven due to that.
Seeking anonymity, a local public representative alleged, ER Enterprise, the construction company involved in this project, earlier got another road construction work in the area, and most of the drain-slabs of that road, broke down within a few days of the completion of the work.
However, Saiful Islam, SEO of ER Enterprise, however, claimed it's very usual for cracks to appear on a road, if it is constructed with ready-mix concrete. He, however, admits that the cracks, which developed across the newly constructed road, are a little bit more than usual.
When asked about the breakdown of the road-slabs on the road, constructed by their company earlier, Saiful said, “We had constructed the road as per the design, provided by the authorities”, alleging that there was an error in the design that caused the issues.
Bangladesh Post correspondent visited the place on Thursday afternoon and talked to several local residents of the area on the issue. Most of them alleged that the contractor used substandard materials that caused on each inches across the road, and drain slabs break down following the same causes, they said.
On other hand, it was seen that several locals including a former UP member on the day raised their allegation publicly to Md Mazharul Islam, the Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) during his visit. Later the UNO said to all, it's a government work and the government will decide what to do, nobody has the right to interrupt the contractor's work. Adding to that he said, the contractor has no chance to get the bill if any wrongdoing is found in the project.
Notably the 384 meters RCC based road has been constructed under the project of GDP-4, and the estimated cost of construction is around
taka 8 million according to the local LGED office.