WITHOUT sounding alarmist, we would like to underscore the dire strait in which the only bridge serving the road link between the capital and the port city of Chittagong currently is.

The report in this newspaper listing the major flaws, like scouring of its piers, damage to the expansion joints etc, only leaves us wondering at the way the bridge was planned, managed and monitored.

One wonders how one can explain away the various damages sustained in the last twenty years since it was commissioned. Was it not the job the planners to forecast the likely number ofvehicles that would use the bridge at the planning stage to cater for the load for at least the duration of its planned life span, which is 100 years, andnotjust20?

And why should vehicles heavier than the permissible weight are allowed on the bridge. Whose job, may we ask, is it to ensure that no overloaded vehicles use the bridge. We have heard of weighing stations on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway put up at huge cost being in a state of disrepair. Should some one not answer for it?

Experts are suggesting that regular monitoring of the bridge was not done and one can also say with certainty neither was regular repair and maintenance of it. One can only feel a sense of utter frustration to see a very important strategic structure left to wither out without proper care.

Given its strategic importance we feel that the Meghna Bridge as its stands today is absolutely inadequate to meet the requirements. A single lane bridge on the major road link is absolutely inadequate. And so apart from restoration of the bridge, whose work must star immediately, we suggest that the government address the need