60,000 villagers suffer for want of a concrete bridge

For the 60,000 residents of 25 villages in Sialkot and Bahuli unions under Sirajganj Sadar upazila, daily commute is a daily ordeal.

In the absence of a concrete bridge, the villagers are forced to risk their lives daily while crossing the Ichamati River for years on a rickety bamboo structure. Their repeated requests to the authorities concerned seem to have only fallen on deaf ears.

People use the 247-feet-long and 7-feet-wide rickety bridge at Soraichandi Ghat of the upazila to cross the river amid risks of accident, said locals. They have to parade another seven miles to reach the district, they said.

After no initiation from the government, the villagers from both sides of the river made this bamboo bridge in 2005, said Bahuli Union Parishad Chairman Ruhul Amin.

Commuters, businesspeople, students, farmers, traders and public health services have seriously been affected in the areas as the people living on both sides of the river cannot travel easily between the upazila headquarters and Sirajganj municipality due to the absence of a concrete bridge over the river.

BM Sana Ullah, deputy assistant agriculture officer of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), has been working in the Sialkot union for the last five years. “I have long been working with the farmers of this union and seen how difficult it is for them to transport their crops, fertilisers, seeds to the other side of the river and the district headquarters,” he told The Business Post.

Tarikul Islam, another deputy assistant agriculture officer of DAE working in Bahuli union, said, “The farmers here need to parade seven miles more to transport their crops which requires immense hard work, time and a higher cost. That is why they are not being able to supply their goods to the city on time.”

Sabina, a second-year student of Riverview College, said she and other students suffer immensely because of the dilapidated state of the bamboo bridge. “We miss our classes often as the bridge gets riskier during the monsoon,” said Sabina.

Tanvir Shakil Joy, Member of Parliament (MP) from Sirajganj-1 (Sadar), and Dr Habibe Millat Munnar from Sirajganj-2 (Kazipur) constituencies could not be reached for comments.

However, Bahuli Union Parishad Chairman Ruhul Amin said they were trying to contact the authorities concerned from the upazila administration, and they assured them they would take measures to mitigate the sufferings of the villagers.

In this regard, Executive Engineer of the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) Mizanur Rahman said considering the importance of the bridge, the authorities had already sent their budget estimates to the ministry concerned for the construction of the bridge.

“Construction work will start as soon as the project gets approved by the ministry,” said Mizanur.