4-Year Delay in Sherpur Bridge Project Leaves 15,000 People Suffering

A bridge under construction over the Pagla River in Jhenaigati upazila of Sherpur district remains incomplete four years after work began, even though it was supposed to take only 18 months. Thousands of residents across several villages continue to face serious hardship because of the delay.

Siddique Ali, a member of Dhanshail Union Parishad, said that because the bridge does not exist, women in labor sometimes give birth before they can reach a hospital. He added that sick people often cannot be taken to hospital at all, and that families in the area struggle to arrange marriages because of the missing bridge.

The contractor failed to finish the work even after the deadline passed, and the tender was finally cancelled three years later. A new cost estimate has now been prepared and sent for approval. Residents say the four years of suffering are the direct result of the contractor’s negligence, since the LGED took no effective action during that time beyond issuing a few notices.

The river crossing connects Amir Ali’s house in Kalinagar under Jhenaigati Sadar union to Saju Mia’s house in Dhanshail union to the west, and it serves people from several villages. During the rainy season people rely on boats to cross, while in the dry season residents from five to seven villages risk their lives crossing on a bamboo bridge. The Local Government Engineering Department, or LGED, awarded the bridge contract at a cost of 5.82 crore taka.

The work was originally due to finish by June 11, 2025. Fifteen months before that deadline, only the piling and one abutment had been completed. According to the Jhenaigati LGED office, the bridge is funded under the Program for Supporting Rural Bridges, financed jointly by the Bangladesh government and the World Bank through IDA. On December 12, 2023, Messrs Dhruba Trade Agency of Sherpur won the contract to build the 75 meter bridge at a cost of 5.82 crore taka, with a construction window running from December 12, 2023 to June 11, 2025.

During that period, only the pillars and one abutment were completed before the contractor halted work. The deadline was extended several times afterward, but no further work was done. Residents say LGED showed unusual leniency, issuing notices a few times but taking no real legal action over the following three years.

Eventually, under pressure from local residents, LGED cancelled the tender. The contractor, having completed only a small portion of the work, submitted a bill claiming 20 percent completion.

Local residents said thousands of farmers on both sides of the river face major difficulty transporting their crops to market. After nearly four years of halted work, the exposed iron rods have rusted, and the completed abutment is decaying under a layer of moss. Many people are now questioning why LGED took no legal steps for three years, as if some unseen influence was protecting the contractor.

Vegetable farmers Sultan Mia and Mokhlesur Rahman from South Dariarpar said that during the dry season, they bring vegetables by horse cart to one side of the river near Saju’s house. From there, they carry baskets or sacks of vegetables on their heads across the bamboo bridge to unload near Amir Ali’s house, where pickup vans or trucks carry the produce onward to markets across the country. They said this process causes them enormous hardship.

Farmers Nurujjaman from Bagerbhita village and Nur Ali from Mohonganj said it costs 70 to 80 taka to carry one maund of vegetables across the crossing. Cucumbers, potatoes, pumpkins, gourds, and beans can survive the trip, but they said carrying snake gourd is heartbreaking, since wholesalers refuse to buy it once it breaks during the crossing.

Farmer Moazzem Ali from North Kanduli said people from ten to fifteen villages, including South Dariarpar, North Kanduli, Majhapara, Bagerbhita, Beparipara, and the Mohonganj bazar area, are suffering because of this. He said these communities depend entirely on selling vegetables and rice, yet no elected representative pays attention to their hardship. Farmer Shahjahan Mia added that people in the region are very poor and depend on farming alone, but the broken road and missing bridge prevent them from getting fair prices for their crops. He said that due to a lack of transport, a single sack of fertilizer often has to be split into three loads and carried home on someone’s head.

Schoolchildren also risk crossing the shaky bamboo bridge every day to reach school, college, or madrasa. Al-Amin, a fifth grade student at North Kanduli Government Primary School, was rushing to buy medicine for his feverish grandmother when he fell off the bridge into the water below and became a patient himself. He said he was hurrying to cross for his grandmother’s medicine when he fell and got hurt, adding that many children like him fall from the bridge quite often.

Shafiqul Islam, chairman of Dhanshail Union Parishad, said that once the bridge and its connecting road are completed, thousands of farmers will finally get fair prices for their crops. He added that the route would also widen travel options from Jhenaigati through Sreebardi, Bhatpur, and Tatihati all the way to Rowmari in Kurigram.

Anantu Bol, the Jhenaigati upazila engineer at LGED, told Daily Inqilab that the tender was cancelled because the contractor failed to complete the work on time, and that the contractor had submitted a bill after completing only 20 percent of the project.