Faruk Ahmed Molla :
The road project of 13 and a half kilometers from Shariatpur’s Jazira TNT intersection to Padma Setu Roundabout has been completed for 3 years, but only 27% of the work has been completed so far. The Padma Bridge has been opened but the fate of Shariatpur residents is less than expected, the road is narrow and potholed, waterlogged when it rains and gray with dust when it’s sunny. Therefore, road users including about 10 thousand students of 15 educational institutions are suffering. And passenger and cargo vehicles are running with risk. Small accidents are happening. Due to the monsoon, the road work is getting a bit disrupted, the Shariatpur Road and Public Paths Department said that the work will be completed soon after the monsoon ends.
Traffic has increased on the Shariatpur-Dhaka road after the Padma Bridge was commissioned.
The road from Shariatpur Sadar to Jazeera’s Naodoba Padma Setu roundabout is 27 km. Of this, the road project of 13 and a half kilometers from Jazira TNT intersection to Padma Setu Roundabout has been completed for 3 years but only 27% of the work has been completed. The road is narrow and has big potholes which cause waterlogging when it rains. And if it’s sunny, grind it to dust. Therefore, road users including about 10,000 students of 15 educational institutions in the area are suffering. Besides, the work of the 13 and a half km section from Kotapara to TNT junction is also going on at an extremely slow pace.
According to the sources of the District Roads and Public Roads Department, the 27 km road starts from Shariatpur city fire service to Jazira’s Naodoba Padmasetu Roundabout. On January 1, 2020, the work of the road with two bridges started through three packages at a cost of 1682 crores 54 lakhs 97 thousand taka. The first is 13.5 km from Shariatpur City Fire Service to Jajira TNT Junction, the second is Kotapara Bridge and Kazirhat Bridge and the third is 13.5 km from Jajira TNT Junction to Naodoba Padma Setu Roundabout. Although two phases of work have been completed in three projects, 70 percent of the work has been completed. And only 27 percent of the work from Jazira TNT Junction to Naodoba Padma Setu Roundabout has been completed.
The work was supposed to be completed by June 30, 2024, but it has been extended to June 30, 2025.
BK Nagar High School English department teacher MH Shimul said, from Naodoba to Kazirhat, there are about 15 educational institutions, thousands of students study here, when it rains, the attendance of students is very low, road accidents often occur, students do not get cars, there are very few cars. Again many times the car overturns, students face various problems, we have a hospital here, emergency patients cannot come, we are drawing the attention of the government to complete this road work very quickly.
Car driver Sapon said, earlier it took us one and a half hours to go to Dhaka, now it takes more than two hours and we have to face various problems from place to place.
Businessman Amir Hossain said, we have to face a lot of problems due to the broken road. If the road is broken and it rains, the car cannot move, and sometimes the car overturns and our goods are damaged. We demand the completion of this road as soon as possible.
Students said that the road conditions are worse when it rains for which they cannot come to school, one student demanded that the work be handed over to the army.
Former UP member Chan Mia said, it takes 30 minutes to reach Padma Bridge from Dhaka, and it takes 1.5 hours to reach Kazirhat from Padma Bridge, which is 15 minutes, we want to get rid of this suffering.
Md. Asaduzzaman, Deputy Assistant Engineer of Roads and Township Department said,
Due to the monsoon, the road work is being disrupted a little, after the monsoon, the work will proceed quickly, he said that out of the total 22 LA cases, 1 Madaripur, 21 Shariatpur, 13 of them have been handed over to the district administration of roads and townships, there are still 8 roads that are slow to work. The official said that this is also a reason behind.
Note: At least 1.3 million people of the district will have access to various districts including Dhaka if the road is established.
