“After almost two decades of repeated applications, the 1-kilometer section of the Ullapara Patbandar-Salop railway station unpaved road was paved in May-June this year.
But due to heavy rains last month, most of the paved section has broken and collapsed into the nearby canal. This has put the movement of vehicles on the newly constructed road at risk.
” Alamgir Hossain of Betbari village in Ullapara upazila was saying these words with great difficulty.
Khorshed Alam, Shahadat Hossain and Hafizul Islam of Ramkantapur village and many others said almost the same thing. The distance of the road from Ullapara Patbandar to Salop railway station is about 4 kilometers. There is the Karatoya River in the middle. The distance of the road on the west bank of the river is about 2 kilometers and on the east bank is 2 kilometers.
Panchakroshi and Salop unions are located on the east bank of the Karatoya river in the upazila.
The residents of these two unions cross the river and commute to Ullapara upazila headquarters every day through this road. For this reason, this road is very important.
When we went to see the damaged part of the road on Sunday, the aforementioned victims shared their stories of suffering. Due to heavy rain, the carpeting has come off in some parts of the road and created holes. Again, many parts have collapsed and collapsed. This year, in May-June, the Ullapara Upazila Office of the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) paved a 1-kilometer section of this road from Ullapara jute port through Ramkantapur village.

Locals said that they are making great efforts to pave another 1-kilometer section of this road from Betbari-East Satbaria Kheyaghat in the current fiscal year. But the paved part has collapsed within 3 months, leaving the people of the area disappointed.
The locals have again appealed to the LGED authorities to repair the paved part of the road that was damaged by the rain with proper piling and pave the road up to the said pier.
Sarojit Sonamo Biswajit, proprietor of the contracting company Esha & Maria Enterprise, said, “The road has been constructed as per the rules. Recently, some places have been damaged due to heavy rain.
” He said that the repairs will be done soon after contacting the LGED office.
When I spoke to Md. Shahidullah, the head of the Ullapara office of the Local Government Engineering Department, in this regard, he said that he has already inspected the newly paved road of the Ullapara Patbandar-Salop railway station.
He also said that many places of the paved part have collapsed due to heavy rain. The LGED office will make arrangements for its prompt repair when the water in the canal next to the road dries up.
They will also take necessary measures to pave the section from Betbari to East Satbaria Kheaghat.