A Rangamati road remains in awful state for years
Left without adequate repair, Rangapani-Assambasti road in Rangamati town has remained a nuisance for commuters for years. Photo: STAR
Rangapani-Asambasti-Tabalchhari road in the town has remained in an awful condition for years. Rangamati Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) on December 1, 2010 gave work orders to contractors Mujibur Rahman Mujib, Md Tipu and Md Mostafa as lowest bidders to repair the 5.4km road under three packages with an estimated cost of Tk 7 crore, with a one-year timeframe to complete the task. But most of the work has remained incomplete despite time extension for two times as only Mostafa has nearly finished his portion of the work but the two others have kept their work suspended for months. Mostafa won the bid with his own firm M/S Al-mas Construction while Tipu and Mujib dropped their documents using the name of M/S Ananta Bikash Tripura, a construction firm owned by an indigenous person in Khagrachhari, said Sohrab Ali, executive engineer of LGED. The name of M/S Ananta Bikash Tripura was used allegedly to dodge income tax as the government relaxed the tax for the indigenous people through a circular, said LGED sources. Only the sub-base work has been completed at some points of Swarnatila-Mushroom Production Centre and Bhedibhedi Sangharam Bihar-Monoghar portions of the road, said sources at Rangamati LGED office. “After doing a very little work, Mujib stopped it about a year ago on the pretext of non-availability of fund. But he has already drawn Tk 37 lakh as running bill. He sought advance bill which I cannot give," said Sohrab Ali. "I served 18 notices, asking him to complete the work quickly. I also asked Ananta Bikash to finish the work and he assured me that he will do the work if Mujib does not dot it. I may cancel the work and make the license black-listed if they fail to complete the work by next December," he said. Mujib, also a local leader of Jubo League, refuted the allegation of seeking advance bill and said, "The executive engineer could not arrange necessary funds and failed to give proper decisions. I could not complete the work due to rain. I have already started the work and it will complete very soon." Md Tipu, also claiming that he stopped the repair work on his portion due to rain, said he hopes to finish the work within a very short time. During a recent visit, this correspondent saw that the badly damaged roads were almost unfit for vehicular movement. Dhirendra Chakma, a ward councillor of Rangapani area under Rangamati municipality, said, "People of my area are suffering a lot due to the awful condition of the road for long. About four months ago, I submitted a prayer to the deputy commissioner to take initiative to repair the road."
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