Areas of several upazilas including Thakurgaon district town have been inundated due to continuous rains for several days. Road communication between the two upazilas has been cut off as the bypass road of the bridge under construction in Ganirhat area has been submerged in water.
Pirganj-Ranisankail paved road is being widened under Roads and Highways Department. As part of this, a contractor from Gopalganj is demolishing the Antar Bridge in Ganirhat area of the road and rebuilding it.
To keep the road communication running, the contractor somehow built a bypass road on the side of the bridge which was submerged in a few days of rain. Due to the high flow of water, some parts of the bypass road have already collapsed.
As a result, direct road communication between Pirganj and Ranisankail upazilas has been cut off since Thursday night. All types of vehicles plying from district headquarters to Ranisankail and Haripur
upazilas through Pirganj are not able to operate directly.
Vehicles are moving through Pirganj to the eastern side of the bridge. On the other hand, vehicles coming from Haripur and Ranisankail upazilas to Pirganj or district headquarters are not able to reach Pirganj or district headquarters.
They are moving to the west side of the bridge. Ordinary people have to get out of their vehicles and go to the other end of the bypass road and get back to their destination. The passengers and pedestrians are suffering massively from this dilemma.
Meanwhile, Upazila Chairman Akhtarul Islam and Upazila Nirbahi Officer Rezaul Karim visited the spot on Friday afternoon to inspect the situation. They reported the matter to senior officials of the Roads and Highways Department and asked the contractor to repair the bypass road.
Upazila Chairman Akhtarul Islam said that when the matter was reported to the Thakurgaon Executive Engineer of the Roads and Highways Department, he asked the contractor to build a temporary bailey bridge there. This will alleviate the suffering of the people.
