Hili Land Port road needs renovation

Negligence in repair and maintenance left a one-kilometre road stretch at the busy Hili Land Port in Hakimpur of Dinajpur in an awful condition causing immense suffering to local people and port users, particularly importers and exporters.

The road stretching from the port’s main gate (Zero Point) to the Panama gate has developed numerous cracks and potholes, inflicting suffering on importers and exporters.

Besides, the road connecting the port’s road intersection to Hakimpur Upazila Parishad office, Rajdhani intersection, Mahila College road, Check-post road to Tempo Stand area is also severely dilapidated.

The dilapidated road pushes up transport costs for the importers to and from the land port as drivers take more time to cover the distance of the dilapidated road.

Goods-laden trucks often overturn on the road because of the giant cracks and potholes.

Local residents and importers said the authorities concerned ignored repair and maintenance of the road for long although the government earns a lot of revenue from the land port every year.

During monsoon, water accumulates in the potholes and become impossible for drivers to understand the road condition.

There were some attempts to repair the potholes filling them with brickbats, but the road returns to the previous condition within a few days.

During a visit, this correspondent found that a number of potholes and cracks have developed on the road, making it troublesome and risky for commuters.

Mizanur Rahman and Marshal Hossain, residents of Hili’s Rajdhani intersection, said the main road of Hili Land Port is completely unfit for traffic. “We cannot go out during the rainy season as the road remains waterlogged,” said Mizanur.

Trucker Montaj Ali said, “We transport stones on trucks from the port to different areas in the country. Sometimes stone-loaded trucks overturn due to the cracks and potholes in the road.”

Hakimpur municipality mayor Jamil Hossain said, “The main road of Hili Land Port is under the Roads and Highways Department. We have notified the higher authorities about the matter several times but to no avail.”

“We sometimes use brickbats and rubbish to renovate the roads, but it does not last long,” he added.

Harun-or-Rashid, chairman of Hakimpur upazila and president of Hili Land Port Importers and Exporters Association, said: “The road is comparatively narrow and full of cracks and potholes which disrupts export and import activities. The daily lives of local residents are being hampered day after day.”

Roads and Highways Department Sub Divisional Engineer in Dinajpur, Kamrul Hasan, said, “We are trying to fix the Hili Land Port road for traffic. To this end, we are going to acquire land in order to expand the road.”

“The land acquisition process will be done in three months, and the expansion work will start after that,” he added

“We were thinking of inviting tender to renovate a 24 foot stretch of the road. However, after getting the prime minister’s assurance, we suspended the operation. He further said that the government wants to build a four-lane highway surrounding the land port.

“We will soon call for tenders to initiate the work order. We are busy acquiring the lands needed for the project. As soon as the RHD finishes the construction work in Joypurhat, they will initiate it here,” he added.

However, he could not specify the exact timeline of the project.