Jashore-Khulna road lies dilapidated even after Tk 4b repairs

A staggering Tk 4 billion has been spent on the repair of a 38-kilometre stretch of the Jashore-Khulna highway throughout the last nine years. Still, the section mostly remains in a sorry state, causing immense sufferings to the commuters.

Whenever the road is repaired, it does not take a long time to get rutted and filled with potholes. The authorities repaired the highway in the middle of 2022 for the last time, but it started wearing the previous dilapidated look within several months.

While visiting the highway from Jashore town to Rajghat of Nawapara, ruts were seen at different spots, while the bitumen layer eroded in some places. Also, there were numerous potholes in some areas. 

The authorities began a new phase of repair works, blocking a lane of the highway. It frequently leads to a two-km tailback on the busy highway, inflicting hazards on the commuters. 

The highway has commercial significance as it is an important route for transporting goods from the Mongla Port in Bagerhat to various parts of the country, via the Nawapara seaport. It underwent seven rounds of repairs since the fiscal year 2013-14. In each of the cases, the condition returned to the previous level within months.

Disclosing their ordeal, Nazrul Islam, a truck driver, said, “I am seeing the road to be repaired for the last 10 years, but it is not being finished. The trucks tilt while moving with goods on board. We have to drive slowly amid high risks.”

Individuals concerned described the Jashore-Nawapara highway as an example of non-sustainability of roads in Bangladesh. The road is being repaired repeatedly with the public fund, but the public sufferings continue to persist.

In the process, the only gainer is the contractors who get frequent repair tenders. There is a longstanding allegation that the concerned officials of the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) enjoy various undue benefits from the contractors.

The RHD, which runs under the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges, is responsible for road construction and repair across the country. According to the RHD, the Jashore-Nawapara highway was repaired and reconstructed at a cost of Tk 160 million in the fiscal year 2013-14. Since then, it was repaired or reconstructed six more times until FY23.

Among them, the repair costs were within Tk 90 million three times, while the costs ranged from Tk 160 million to 1.58 billion remaining four times. 

The expensive contracts were awarded to Taher Brothers, Mahbub Brothers, Toma Construction, Mojahar Enterprises, and Rimi Nirman Limited.

According to the RHD, the Toma Construction received a Tk 3.21 billion project to repair the highway in May,  2018. The project implementation deadline was June, 2020, but the company got the timeframe extended by another six months, citing the Covid-19 pandemic and hostile environment.

It completed the project within the extended timeframe. Later, the project was extended further until June 2022, with an additional allocation of Tk 270 million, citing the persisting poor condition of the highway.

The commuters complained about the recurring issues of rutting, potholes, and uneven surfaces. Despite the repeated repairs, the road fails to withstand the wear and tear of regular use.

Golam Kibria, executive engineer of the RHD’s Jashore office, said an initiative has been undertaken to renovate a 16-km  stretch of the highway through a new tender. At the initial phase, the work on a 4-km stretch has already been started with an allocation of Tk 410 million.

He hoped that the public sufferings would mitigate once the carpeting work on the road is finished.   

According to the RHD, Mojahar Enterprises and Rimi Nirman Ltd. received the contract for carpeting. Mojahar Enterprises was among the five contractors that received 51 per cent contracts of the road renovation project in the 2022-23 fiscal year. Its owner Kazi Mojaharul Haque, who is from Khulna, has strengthened his foothold in the construction business, thanks to his good relations with a local influential family that supports the ruling Awami League.

Another contractor, Toma Construction, has recently received several big projects. The inland water transport authority (BIWTA) noted in a report in 2022 that the construction company did not complete most of their projects in time with the allocated budget.

However, the company’s managing director, Ataur Rahaman Bhuiyan, defended their stance, saying a contractor cannot raise the project cost on its own.

It could not be known much about other entities associated with the renovation project of Jashore-Nawapara highway.  

Drivers and individuals concerned alleged that the instructions to build a 5-feet-deep base for the reconstruction of the Jashore-Nawapara road were not followed. The road did not sustain due to the use of old materials instead of new bricks, sand and gravel. The RHD did not take any action despite questions over the project quality. 

RHD executive engineer Golam Kibria said it will not be fair to blame only the contractor or the RHD for the poor road condition. Rather, the overweight vehicles and the regulator are also equally responsible for the condition. 

The construction companies also echoed the remark. The project manager of Toma Construction, Moniruzzaman, said when the road has a weight-handling capacity of 30 tonnes, the vehicles move with 50 to 60 tonnes of goods on board. This is why the road does not sustain.  

Here, a question arises how do the vehicles move with excess loads. It was learned that an axle load control station was set up at Chengutiya on the Jashore-Khulna highway in 2022 to contain overweights on the road. But it was deactivated after three days in the face of objections from the truck drivers' association.

Rezaul Bishwas, president of Jashore District Truck and Tank Lorry Owners Association, said, “Its true that we objected. It was our demand that weight control stations should be implemented simultaneously across the country. Traders will not come to use Nawapara seaport if it is launched only in this area.”

Rezaul also said trucks with the goods go from Nawapara to different districts, But no other roads sustain damages to the level of Jashore-Nawapara road. He blamed construction defects for the condition.

* The report, originally published in the print and online editions of Prothom Alo, has been rewritten in English by Misbahul Haque