At least twenty villages of Saturia upazila of Manikganj district and Dhamrai upazila of Dhaka district suddenly felt that the joys of Eid came to their homes at the news of approving a 81-meter bridge on the Gazikhali river costing Tk around 8 crore.
Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) published an e-Tender notice for constricting the 81-meter long PC girder bridge on the Gazikhali river at Basat village under Saturia Upazila of Manikanj district to ease decades long sufferings of more than one lakh villagers of both Manikganj and Dhaka district.
Local farmers where suffering a lot in carrying their agricultural products due to the lack of the bridge. Students also faced several accidents while passing temporary narrow bridge made by bamboos.
But after construction of this bridge all these suffering will end for ever.
This bridge will also quickly connect the people of the at least twenty remote villages of two upazilas--Saturia and Dhamrai. They will also communicate with capital Dhaka very easily.
Earlier, local people proposed the name of the bridge as ‘Shaheed Sheikh Russel Bridge’ , who was brutally assassinated at the black night of August 15 in 1971, along with Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his other family members.
On hearing the news of publishing e-Tender for constricting the bridge, thousands of local people from the adjacent remote villages, started different kinds of celebration on Monday.
In the morning, activists of Bachat Bridge Implementation Struggle Committee, which had organized various programs to realize the demand of the bridge for long times, villagers started distributing sweetmeats at every houses of Basat village.
On the other hand, children, teenagers and women enjoyed the enthusiasm of splashing colors on each others. Pedestrians also joined in this joyous celebration. Another phase of the celebrations started on Monday night which followed by a cultural events which continued till late night. Youths were seen busy for conducting colorful fireworks.
Local people organized this exceptional celebration event titled ‘Thank you Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’.
There was no chief guest, no special guests in this program for thanking Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Habibullah Mizan, president of Basat Bridge Implementation Struggle Committee presided over the meeting while general secretary Aminul Islam gave welcome committee.
Engineer Abul Bashar, Chief Advisor of the Bridge Implementation Struggle Committee, Razzak Hossain Raj, Member of Manikganj Zilla Parishad Anwar Hossain Pintu, Chairman of Saturia Union Parishad, Engineer Obaidullah Al Masum, DGM of Saturia Zone of Manikganj Pally Bidut Samity, Md Nazrul Islam, President of Saturia Press Club ,also Manikganj district correspondent of Daily Ittefaq, Engineer Lutfor Rahman, General Secretary of Saturia Press Club , also Manikganj District Correspondent of The Daily Asian Age, Hasan Foyzi, Manikganj district correspondent of SATV spoke at the function and thanked Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for gifting the bridge.
Local grassroots politicians including Belal Hossain, former Organizing Secretary of Saturia Union Awami League, Z H Ripon , organizing secretary of Saturia Union Awami League Ripon, Ward Awami League General Secretary Tofazzal Hossain, Vice-president President Abdur Rahman Biswas, Joint Secretary Shamsur Rahman Pintu, also expressed their gratefulness to the Prime Minister for her initiative for constructing the long cherished bridge.
