10 crores of road renovation, it will be broken in one year

Within a year of renovation, the Tanor-Chaubaria road of Rajshahi has been given away. Cracks have appeared in different parts of the road. The local government engineering department has put up red signs at the places to warn the vehicle drivers to avoid accidents. Last year, 10.14 km road was renovated at a cost of Tk 10 crore.

During the construction of the road, when the locals complained about the poor quality of work, the contractor and LGED officials threatened them by accusing them of obstructing government work.

Residents complain that even during the renovation of the road, the work is done in the same way. They protested. But the upazila engineer did not take it into consideration.

In 2020, this road from Tano Sadar to Chowbaria was tendered for renovation. The tender costing 10 crore 86 lakh was awarded to Jessore’s wire rope contractor M/s Moinuddin Limited. The work order was issued on 30 August 2020. But the contractor did not start work for some time due to the corona epidemic. In the meantime, M/s Moinuddin sold the work at a profit to Wasim, a local contractor in Rajshahi, instead of doing it himself. The second contractor started work in mid-2022.

The residents of Dhantoir area of ​​Tanor-Chaubaria road complained that according to the terms of the tender, after removing the old debris and rolling with new khawa mixture, sand and khawa should be given in the second layer. But the contractor quickly completed the work by removing the rubbish and laying it on the road again with straight carpeting. The road was also not properly rolled during the renovation. Due to this, most of the road has been given away.

It has been seen on the ground that several cracks have been created at the Madaripur Bazar point of the road. Many places have burst. 5-6 hands have been given in front of Jasim Uddin’s shop at Dhantoir intersection of the road. At this point, the road has cracks in many places. Warning red signs are hung before and after the intersection to avoid accidents. It was alleged that the contractor did not plant grass on both sides of the road in the tender order.

A few local contractors said on condition of anonymity that the quality is never going to be good if they work by buying tenders. The officials of LGED do not take any action despite knowing this. A contractor who will not do the work himself should not be given.

Residents said that vehicle drivers can drive on this road with caution during the day, but they meet with accidents at night. The residents demanded quick repair of the cracked and cracked areas. Otherwise, they fear that the road will become impassable due to the movement of heavy vehicles.

Wasim Hossain, the second contractor of the road, denied the allegations of poor quality of work and said that the road will not remain new for the rest of its life. When the new allotment comes, the broken and broken places will be fixed.

Tano Upazila Engineer of LGED Saidur Rahman said that the damaged parts of the road will be repaired soon. He did not comment on the substandard work.