Sylhet-Tamabil-Jafflong highway in sorry state

SYLHET, Oct 06: The Sylhet-Tamabil-Jafflong Highway has been in a dilapidated state for long with a number of potholes and cracks.
Specially, the 17-km portion from Jaintapur upazila headquarters to Jaflong had become worst as the last year's floods had badly damaged it.
During the monsoon or even on moderate shower the whole road becomes unusable due to innumerable potholes at places.
On the other hand, plying of overloaded trucks, carrying stones and boulders caused much to worsen the busy road, linking Tamabil border points.
Its importance went up with the launching of a full-fledged Tamabil Land Custom Station last year. Moreover, the number of tourists from different areas of Sylhet region as well as all over the country to Jafflong got a rise recently.
There had been no major development works on the 55-km long busy highway for long years, sources alleged while several thousand vehicles of all types ply on it. Especially the trucks, overloaded with stone got a rise in recent years.
However, after the prolonged and repeated floods last year, the Roads and Highway Department (RHD) prepared a Tk 2.15 billion project for the 17 km road.
Trader Ataur Rahman at Jafflong bazaar said the number of tourists is rising day by day. But they suffer hugely for the worn out state of the road. The authority should take immediate steps for repairing the highway, which also plays important role for transporting imported goods from Meghalaya.
Cost of imported goods go up due to the additional transport charges as the road had been in a pitiable state for long, said Sanjay Das, importer with the Tamabil Land Custom station.
Contacted, an official in the RHD, Sylhet said a project for some major works on the road from Jaintapur to Bollaghat and Tamabil was sent to the ministry.
On preliminary approval the project would be placed for the ECNEC approval, the official said, "We would be able to go for bidding and other formalities before starting the work."
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