Two rounds of flood have caused extensive damages to the roads and bridges in Sylhet division, disrupting road communication and causing sufferings to people.
Some areas in the Sylhet division are still under floodwater. Vehicles are plying on these roads with risk as flooding has created potholes on almost every road, said locals.
According to a joint estimate by the Roads and Highways Department (RHD), the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) and Sylhet City Corporation (SCC), a total of 1,600 kilometres of roads have been damaged in this year’s flooding in the Sylhet region, which is worth Tk 2,100 crore.
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Although floodwater has receded from most of the areas, road communication is yet to return to its usual state.
According to the LGED, SCC and RHD, around 1600 km of roads and 2.5km of bridges in the four districts of the Sylhet division need repairing, which will cost approximately Tk 2,100 crore.
According to the SCC, 186.53km of roads in the Sylhet metropolitan area have been damaged. Besides, 96.72km of drains, one km retaining wall, 60km of footpaths and 82km of water lines have been affected by floodwater.
“Tk 328 crore is needed to repair these. We’ve already requested the ministry concerned for allocation,” said SCC Chief Engineer Nur Azizur Rahman.
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“We’ve conducted departmental repairing works as a temporary solution. Permanent repairs won’t be possible if we don’t get the required funds,” Mostafizur said.
Flooding has ruined most of the rural roads built by LGED. The length of these roads is at least 1,200km and the amount of losses is around Tk 1,000 crore.
“We’ve been able to mitigate the losses to some extent by using sandbags during the flooding. We’ve kept the roads useable using bricks and sandbags in places where holes have emerged,” said Enamul Kabir, Sylhet LGED executive engineer.
