Road work stalled after digging earth

People of 15 villages of Dinajpur Sadar upazila are suffering a lot as the contractor of an under construction road left the scene after digging the earth, said locals.

The Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) took an initiative to turn into a metalled road a 750-metre portion of earthen way in Boroil-Bonkali area under Dinajpur Sadar upazila.

The road connects 15 villages with Dinajpur-Rangpur highway at Bottoli point in the upazila.

Md Mozaffar Hossain received the work order on March 10 and labourers hired by him started digging the road the next day.

But after digging the 750-metre area within a week, the contractor and his labourers disappeared, locals said.

"Huge mud has remained piled on both sides of the road due to the digging. The villagers cannot use the road as it is left in such a bad condition," said Rafiqul Islam, a resident of Nayabazar village.

The situation turned awful after an overnight rain on Thursday, said Rubina Begum of Boroil village.

During a visit to the spot on Friday, this correspondent found that mud and stagnant water made the condition of the dug road horrible.

Passers-by were facing difficulties while roadside shopkeepers found it difficult to open the shops as the piled up earth has turned into mud.

Locals installed a pump machine to remove the stagnant water from the road.

"We thought the road would ease our life, but now things have got worse," said Moniram Roy of Bonkali village.

The locals have demanded early steps to complete the road work.

Faruk Hossain, engineer of local LGED, said, "The Tk 50 lakh work order was awarded to Md Mozaffar Hossain. The LGED authority several times reminded him to complete the work early but got no response."

This correspondent tried to contact contractor Mozaffar Hossain through phone several times but he did not receive the calls.