OUR CORRESPONDENT, Narsingdi

Thousands of people at different char villages under Narsingdi Sadar upazila have been suffering immensely as several dilapidated roads in those areas are lying without repair for years.

Locals said nearly one lakh residents living at several villages under Alokbali, Chardighaldi, Shreenagar and Karimpur unions have to face serious difficulties in reaching their destinations every day as most of the roads of those villages have remained in awfully dilapidated conditions for years.

As a result, many commuters often get injured while travelling through different damaged roads of those unions, which has now become a common scenario, they said.

Villagers said the Meghna river separated Chardighaldi union from the main land and located nearly eight kilometres from Narsingdi town.

Boat is the only mode of communication for several thousand residents of different villages under the union.

Meanwhile Alokbali union, which is about 10 kilometres from the district town, has eight villages, but apart from a three-kilometre-long paved road, stretching from Bakhornagar to Nekjanpur, there is no concrete road in the union.

While talking, Chardigaldi Union Parishad (UP) Chairman Delwar Hossain Shahin said a concrete road was constructed to connect Chardighali with Jithrampur about a decade ago.

But due to lack of renovation work for long that too has turned awful for its users as it developed at least 27 cracks at different spots, he said.

A team from the upazila engineers’ office visited different villages under his union about a year ago and assured the local residents to repair the roads soon, but nothing has been done so far, he added.

Sayed Abdullah, a bank official at Chardighaldi village, said usually two auto-rickshaws cannot run side by side as numerous cracks have developed at many points of the eight-feet-wide road.

Moreover, as the entire area is separated by the Meghna, local farmers face serious difficulties in transporting their agricultural products to the nearby markets.

Alokbali UP Chairman Delwar Hossain Dipu said he has informed the authorities concerned to take immediate step to repair the roads, but necessary steps are yet to taken in this regard.

Narsingdi Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) Executive Engineer Shah Alam Mia said they will start the repair work of the roads soon after getting fund allocation from the World Bank.