Due to the delay in the construction of the dam to protect the bank of Dudhkumar River in Bhuruingamari upazila of Kurigram, the locals are worried about its collapse during the coming monsoon season.
It has been reported that Bangladesh Water Development Board has invited tenders for three packages for river bank conservation work including 1500 meters downstream termination in Islampur area under Bhuruingamari upazila under Dudhkumar river management and development project flowing through Kurigram district.
The estimated cost of package No. 15 of 500 meters in Islampur Mauza Bhati is Tk 10 crore 42 lakh 55 thousand 733. A Dhaka-based contractor named TI-PVL-ZI JV got the job.
The estimated cost of package No. 14 of 500 meters in the middle section is Tk 10 crore 87 lakh 53 thousand 63. A contractor company named M/s Parvanwar of Rangpur gets this work. The estimated cost of package No. 13 of 500 meters upstream is Tk 11 crore 94 lakh 24 thousand 927. Dhaka's SASI contractor gets the job.
It can be seen on the surface that the contractor companies started dropping geo bags on the river bank in the middle of last year, but they stopped the work after dropping some geo bags. All those geo bags were dumped without sloping the river bank from top to bottom.
Due to non-disposal of geo bags in some parts, breakages have occurred in all those places. Although the work is supposed to be completed in December this year, 100% of the geo bags have not been removed yet. Not only that, the block making work has not started yet. As a result, uncertainty has arisen in the implementation of the project at the scheduled time.
Residents said that if the work is not completed before the monsoon season, the river will face massive erosion. As a result, hundreds of bighas of cropland and houses will be lost in the river. They said that they are worried about losing their houses and land. Abul Kalam, a local member of UP, said that despite asking the contractor's people to start the work to complete the work quickly, they have stopped the work.
Golam Rabbani, the project manager of the contractor Rupantar said, "We are sitting with geo bags filled. It is not possible to drop the remaining geo bags due to non-counting.
Abdullah-al-Mamun, executive engineer of Bangladesh Water Development Board Kurigram, said that due to the inspection of the Dhaka office, there is some delay in the arrow conservation work. It is expected that within the next one week, the arrow conservation work will be started in Islampur.