Lalmohan Residents Risk Their Lives on Makeshift Walkway Over Broken Bridge

People in Lalmohan, Bhola, have been crossing a broken bridge on a makeshift walkway made of betel nut tree trunks for the past 16 years. They have to risk their lives every time they cross it. Schoolchildren and local residents suffer the most. The public is facing extreme hardship.
The bridge is 12 metres long, but there is no safe way to cross it. Its concrete slabs are broken. Betel nut tree trunks have been placed over the damaged parts to make a narrow walkway. Every day, hundreds of people, including students, use this unsafe path and risk their lives.

For the past 16 years, people from several villages have been using this damaged bridge over the Naya Bhangani canal in Ganeshpur area of Ward No. 3 under Motahar Nagar Union in Lalmohan upazila of Bhola.
The Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) built the girder bridge in 2009 to make travel easier for local people. But only one year later, around 2010, the slabs on the eastern side and middle section of the bridge broke and fell into the canal. No steps have been taken to repair or rebuild it in the past 16 years.
Local people said there is no way to cross the broken parts of the bridge. So, they placed betel nut tree trunks over the eastern and middle sections to make a narrow walkway. They also made a wooden ladder on the western side to cross the bridge.

The bridge shakes even when someone walks over it. A small mistake could cause someone to fall into the canal and suffer serious injuries. Many people of different ages, including children, have already fallen into the canal and been injured.

Schoolchildren face the greatest risk while crossing the bridge. Local residents said they suffer every day because there is no other way to cross the canal.
Students cannot travel to school regularly. Carrying farm goods and travelling for daily needs have also become difficult. Local people have strongly called for urgent repairs to the broken walkway or the construction of a permanent bridge to end their suffering.

Maria, a student of Class Eight, Babul of Class Five and Kalam of Class Four said they feel afraid when crossing the bridge. They fear that it may break and fall into the canal at any moment.
Like them, all students in the area have to cross the bridge every day with fear and risk. Many students have fallen and been injured. Their books and notebooks have also become wet after such falls. Local people said they want to be freed from this dangerous situation.

Local residents Bachchu Matabbar, Shahe Alam and Shamsul Haque Sikder expressed anger over the long delay. They said the bridge had remained broken for 16 to 17 years, but no one had taken care of it. They said people face serious problems while carrying farm goods and travelling. The eastern and middle sections of the bridge fell into the canal just one year after it was built. The western section is now much higher than the road.

To make crossing possible, local people placed betel nut tree trunks over the broken parts. But the bridge shakes whenever anyone walks on it. As there is no other route, people are forced to use the damaged bridge and risk their lives. They also said hundreds of people from nearby villages use the bridge every day. Since it broke, no vehicle, including auto-rickshaws, can cross it.

Sick people, elderly people and pregnant women face the greatest problems. When someone needs to be taken to the upazila health complex in an emergency, family members have to make a makeshift carrier with bamboo and carry the patient to the market. This causes great suffering for the patient’s family.
Considering the suffering of local people, they have called on Bhola-3 MP and Speaker of the National Parliament Major (Retd.) Hafiz Uddin Ahmed (Bir Bikram) to take urgent steps to repair or rebuild the bridge.

Lalmohan Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Mohammad Sifat Bin Sadek said a list of the damaged bridges in the upazila, including this one, had been prepared and sent to the ministry.
He said the authorities would take the necessary steps to repair or rebuild this bridge and other damaged bridges as soon as funds were available.