Shah Amanat Bridge: A death trap

(Bottom) A truck on Saturday night gets its wheels stuck in the broken wooden deck while trying to pass illegally through the Karnaphuli Shah Amanat Bridge. (Top) For lack of the wood required for repair work, the deck is fixed with the previously leftover or rejected wood. PHOTO: STAR

Vehicular movement on this all-important bridge, which connects the vast southern region of Chittagong, is now a matter of fear for commuters.

Millions of people from Anwara, Patiya, Dohazari, Chandanaish, Satkania and Lohagara upazilas of the district and Cox's Bazar and Bandarban districts travel to and from Chittagong city over the bridge.

At least three accidents occurred on this bridge in a span of two weeks till September 14. Three heavy trucks with goods caved in as the fragile wooden-decks of the bridge failed to withstand the heavy loads. Fortunately, no one was hurt as no passenger vehicle was involved with the accidents.

The accidents, however, caused great problems for all other vehicles. Traffic movement was suspended for hours creating unbearable gridlock on both sides of the bridge.

The Roads and Highway (R & H) engineers and employees are seen everyday on the bridge repairing the dilapidated and broken-down wooden decks amidst movement of vehicles. The authorities had to repair and change, on an average, at least 10 decks daily to keep the bridge in operation.

Worst still, the supply of wood from abroad, which is required to make the decks, was suspended for over a week. This shortage of imported woods now makes the situation terrible these days for safe movement of vehicles.

Sources said most of the 7,000 decks are not in a good shape. As a result, about a dozen cracks and holes developed on the bridge in the last few months and these can cause casualties at any time.

Although the bridge is allowed for light vehicles with maximum three-ton limit, the heavy trucks with five to ten tons are regularly plying on it in presence of law enforcers. It is learnt that the drivers of heavy vehicles pay a toll to the traffic police regularly to use the bridge.

The R & H authorities took up a Tk 5.6 crore project last year to repair the bridge, replacing the worn-out and risky decks, and a contractor for the work was also appointed. The contractor had duly opened an L/C for importing high quality wood from Brazil.

The decking wood was supposed to arrive this September, said Engineer Firoz Iqbal.

But the consignment is yet to reach the port city and the authorities concerned couldn't tell exactly when they would arrive here.

Shah Amanat Bridge (locally known as Karnaphuli bridge) was constructed in 1990. It linked south Chittagong, Cox's Bazar and Bandarban with the other parts of the country and brought about a remarkable change in road communication in this region, reducing both the distance and time of journey.