Teesta Road Bridge misses third deadline
This road bridge over the Teesta River in Lalmonirhat district remains incomplete even upon the expiry of its third deadline today, much to the worry of thousands of commuters in Lalmonirhat and Kurigram districts. Photo: STAR
Construction of Teesta Road Bridge over the Teesta River in Lalmonirhat Sadar upazila has yet to be complete although its third deadline expires today. Only 85 percent of the work has been done in 57 months while the contractor earlier missed two deadlines on September 9, 2009 and May 30, 2010. State Minister for Primary and Mass Education Motahar Hossain, who visited the Teesta Road Bridge on Saturday, expressed his dissatisfaction over non-completion of the bridge by the third deadline. "There was a decision to open the bridge for use by the first week of June this year. But it cannot be done as the contractor, a BNP adherent, does not want to complete the construction during the present government's period,” he said. “I will discus the contractor's negligence and conspiracy over construction of Teesta Road Bridge at the ministry concerned and then necessary action will be taken,” he said. The construction work of the 750-metre-long and 12.11-metre-wide Teesta Road Bridge began on September 7, 2006 and it was scheduled to be complete by September 6, 2009, said officials of Roads and Highway Department (RHD). The Tk 87 crore bridge project is being implemented by the RHD and the Ministry of Communications. Bangladesh government arranged 85 percent of the fund while the rest 15 percent was given by Kuwait government. Construction firms Amin-Delim (Bangladesh) and ASCO (India) are constructing the Teesta Road Bridge in a joint venture. Sources of the construction firms claimed that the work has remained incomplete due to non-payment of the full bills for the already complete work. "We got only 55 percent bill against 85 percent work. We prayed for the remaining bill to the ministry concerned in the first week of this month, but we did not get it till May 29. If we did not face the financial problem, we would have completed the bridge by the third deadline May 30,” said project manager of the work engineer Shafiqur Rahman. He claimed the construction firms faced some problem over approval of the bridge design in the middle of 2007 and it led to the suspension of the construction work for ten months. He said now 300 labourers are working relentlessly to complete construction of the bridge by December this year. When contacted, Mozibor Rahman Mollah, the RHD executive engineer concerned, said, "The authorities of the construction firms are lying for long over construction the bridge. The construction firms placed a bill for additional prices of raw materials but they did not place the bill for work." “Six to eight months more will be needed to complete the construction work of the bridge if the firms continue the work sincerely,” he said. The road bridge over Teesta River is a long-time demand of about 45 lakh people in Lalmonirhat and Kurigram districts as the people of the two districts have been using time-expired risky railway-cum-road bridge over the river for long.
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