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14KM BAJUA-PODDERGANJ ROAD

Unpaved for 50 years
DIPANKAR ROY, Khulna
The 14-kilometre-long Bajua-Podderganj road of Bangladesh Water Development Board in Khulna’s Dacope upazila has been connecting around 8,000 people across several villages in the upazila for around half a century.
Surprisingly, throughout this long time, the road has remained unpaved, with no step to improve it from its earthen condition.
As such, every monsoon, the entire 14-km stretch of the road turns into a muddy ordeal, leaving the people with a harrowing time using the road for commute.
This monsoon, the scenario is no different than it has been in the past 50 years.
The local residents could hardly find answer to the question why the road has not received any attention from public representatives or government agencies over this time.
“There is no alternative to this earthen road for going to my college. When it rains, the road becomes covered by deep mud. No vehicles can ply the road in that condition, and we have to walk through the mud for our commute. It needs urgent renovation,” said Imran Sheikh, a student of Bajua Surendranath College and a local resident.
Sakhina Begum of Bhangapara village said elderly people seldom use the road in the monsoon as it becomes very risky.
“To make the matter worse, the social forestry department planted thousands of trees with sharp thorns along this road. As a result, if one is careless while walking on this muddy road, he might slip and hit a tree, eventually getting injured,” Saidul Sheikh of Pashorder Chunkuri village.
“Taking patients to hospital using the road becomes an arduous task,” he added.
Mizanur Mirza, local union parishad member of Ward-4, said around 8,000 residents of at least eight villages have been suffering for the road over the years.
“Students of three primary schools, two high schools and two colleges use this road. Often, the younger ones have to skip school as they cannot use the road after it rains. Also, after evening, hardly anyone uses the road to avoid mishaps in darkness,” he said.
“Locals complain to me about the road almost every day. However, our budget from the union parishad is too small to work on the road. Also, Local Government Engineering Department has been very reluctant about doing development work in this upazila. Many other roads in my union are also lying unpaved,” said Manosh Roy, chairman of Bajua union parishad.
“I heard that a Tk 798 crore project is awaiting approval of the Executive Committee of National Economic Council, which might solve the problem if approved,” he added.
Contacted, M Zahangir Alom, upazila engineer of LGED in Dacope upazila, said they sent a proposal to the higher authorities for renovating 3-km portion of the road with bricks.
“We will start the work after receiving DO letter from the local lawmaker,” he added.