Due to non-allocation of funds, the repair work of Tarash to Baruhans GC 10.5 km Road and Tarash GC Chanchkair GC via Kundail 3.43 km Road has been stopped for almost nine months.
Mohammad Ali, the proprietor of the contractor Turna Enterprise Limited, said that the construction work has been stopped for the time being due to not getting funds even after completing about 20 percent of the road repair work. However, once the money is allocated, the repair work will start again.
Locals in the area said that repair work of these two important roads has been stopped for about nine months. For this reason, heavy and light passenger and goods vehicles have to move on that road at risk. In particular, a large part of the road has become full of dust, sand dunes and side road ditches. However, thousands of people from Tarash in Sirajganj, Gurudaspur in Natore district and Singra area use this road every day.
Baruhans UP Chairman Moktar Hossain Mukta said there are at least 20 to 25 hats and bazaars around this important road. And as the road repair work has not been completed for a long time, it is not possible to travel to all these hats and bazaars. Passengers on broken roads are also having to pay higher fares for transporting goods and the people of the area have been suffering for almost nine months.
According to the Tarash Upazila LGED office, under the Rural Transport Improvement Projector (RTIP) in 2021, Sirajganj LGED in January repaired Tarash to Baruhans GC 10.515 km and Tarash GC Chanchkair GC Vaya Kundil road 3.33. Later, a contractor named Turna Enterprise Limited of Sirajganj got the job by taking part in the tender.
The estimated cost of the work is 12 crore 55 lakh 46 thousand 181 Tk. And on February 3, 2021, the work was ordered by the contractor. Then he started repairing the road as usual. They completed about 20 percent of the work, including aging, cobblestone placing and sand diversion on various sections of the 14-kilometer road. However, even after receiving the work order, the contractor did not receive any money. As a result, they stopped doing partial repairs in April 2021 due to financial crisis. Since then, the level of suffering on that road has been gradually increasing. Due to the digging of side roads on both sides, the road has become narrow and the traffic has become extremely difficult. Chanowar Hossain, Badal Pramanik, Ashwini Kumar and many other residents of the area said that the road has become impassable as the repair work has been stopped for nine months.
However, Mohammad Ali, the proprietor of the contractor Turna Enterprise Limited, said, "We hope to get the money allocated soon and start work."
In this context, Tarash Upazila Engineer. Abu Sayed said the contractor has already done work worth around Tk 2 crore. And the allocation of money is also in process. We hope to get the repair work allocated in a short time. It will then be possible to resume the next repair work immediately.