There is no trace of bitumen on the road, and the bricks, stones and brick chips have come away. Large potholes have formed all along it. At least 70,000 to 100,000 people in 15 villages who depend on the road are suffering. Yet the 17km road in Lakshmikunda and Pakshi unions along the Padma in Ishwardi upazila has gone unrepaired for years.

The road was originally a river protection embankment that was later turned into a road. The 17km road has now become a death trap, full of big holes and potholes. Rickshaws, vans, CNG-run auto-rickshaws and small vehicles can no longer use it, so people in the area have to take a detour of several kilometres by other roads.

Farmers in the char areas have been hit hardest. They struggle to take their produce to market, and many, to avoid the trouble of carrying goods over the broken road, sell their produce to wholesalers in the field at comparatively low prices, losing money as a result.

The Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) built the single-lane paved road in the 1990s with the help of the Water Development Board. In 2014, under the supervision of the Roads and Highways Department, it was widened to 18 feet and made into a two-lane road. The road was first under the Water Development Board, then LGED, and is now under the Roads and Highways Department. Since 2019, however, it has been unfit for traffic.

Local residents said people from 15 villages use the road built on the embankment, including Lakshmikunda, Kamalpur, Nurullapur, Charkatra, Bahrampur, Pakuria, Rooppur, Char Rooppur, Dadapur, Koikunda, Bilkedar and Char Kurulia in Ishwardi upazila and Char Bhabanipur in Pabna Sadar upazila. At least 70,000 to 100,000 people live in the area, and this was once the main road for all of them.

Nusrat Jahan Samia, a class 12 student at Pakuria School and College, said: "Our college is beside this road and we use it every day. The road is now in such a state that vehicles cannot run. When it rains we cannot even walk through the mud and water, and students' clothes are often ruined on the way to college. The road needs urgent repair."

Asaduzzaman Asad, a trader at Lakshmikunda MP's Mor, said the road had deteriorated fast because of dump trucks and 10-wheel trucks carrying sand and bricks. Big holes have formed, so autobikes, CNGs, rickshaws and motorcycles can no longer use it. Only trucks and 10-wheelers run on it, and sometimes even these overturn or get stuck in the holes.

Lakshmikunda union parishad member Ziaul Islam said the road was in no state for traffic, with no bitumen left anywhere and big holes all along it. "The union parishad does not have the money to repair this road. We have contacted the Roads and Highways Department and other road-related offices. No one has responded. No one wants to help build the road or take responsibility."

Mansur Ahmed, executive engineer of the Pabna Roads and Highways Department, said a project had been taken up to rebuild this road and several others and sent to the relevant office. If it is approved, the road will be rebuilt. Otherwise, there is currently no scope to rebuild it.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.