The 19th Engineering Construction Battalion of Bangladesh Army has resumed construction of the Sangu Bridge on Bandarban-Ruma Road after 18 years.

Sources said communication between Ruma upazila and Bandarban district headquarters would be easier and the socio-economic condition of the people of both the places would improve significantly after completion of the bridge.

After repeated appeals from the locals the Bandarban unit of Roads and Highways Department had undertaken to construct the 217m long bridge in 1992 at a cost of Tk8 crore. The construction of the bridge, which started during the tenure of the BNP-led government, was kept on hold after 15 percent of work as no fund was allocated from the ministry concerned. The construction could not be completed within the BNP government's tenure said the sources.

When the Awami League government came to power in 1996, no fund was allocated to complete the project.

Both the incumbent and the then executive engineers of Bandarban RHD, Bikash Chandra Das and Shitangshu Bikash Saha told the BSS that the cost to complete the bridge jumped three times up.

The 19th ECB has engaged contractors, built labour-sheds and done relevant work to complete the bridge in less than three years, said sources in ECB.