GAIBANDHA, July 18: Portion of an approach road to the Mawlana Bhashani Bridge over the Teesta River in Sundarganj Upazila, Gaibandha, has collapsed after just a few days of heavy rainfall, raising concerns among the locals of major accidents and the quality of construction work in such a costly section of the infrastructure.

A large hole has developed on the approach road and locals said the collapse after just two or three days of rain is unacceptable and if permanent repair initiatives are not taken, major accidents would occur in the future.

Rejecting any

negligence in the construction work, Engineer Majed Azad of the contractor Nipa Enterprise said, "Repair work is currently underway on the collapsed part. However, this is not a permanent solution. Such problems may persist until drains are built on both sides of the connecting road of the arch bridge. The matter was being reported from the beginning."

Gaibandha LGED Deputy Assistant Engineer Kazi Mahbubur Rahman Milon, who is in charge of supervising the road paving work, said, "The collapse of the approach road in the city intersection area on the northern end of the bridge has been inspected. The contractor has been asked to take necessary measures immediately."

"The pothole has been created due to continuous heavy rainfall. We have inspected the matter," Upazila Engineer Tapan Kumar Chakrobarty

of Sundarganj, Gaibandha, said, adding that they will permanently repair the bridge very soon.

In response to a question about whether there was any negligence in the construction work, he said, "There was no negligence in the work. This situation has occurred due to water entering through rat holes. There is no reason to panic."

Gaibandha LGED Executive Engineer Md. Saiful Islam said the approach road collapsed due to

continuous rain and presence of sand under it. He added that labourers have been working since Wednesday and the problem will be resolved soon.

Under the supervision of Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), the 1,490-meter-long and 9.6-meter-wide bridge was

built to connect Sundarganj Upazila of Gaibandha with Chilmari Upazila of Kurigram. The bridge was built at a cost of Tk 9.25 billion with funding support from the Saudi Fund for Development.

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