Three important roads of Ishwardi unfit for movement, causing frequent accidents
TA Panna, Roving Correspondent, Ishwardi ( Pabna)
Three roads, including Ishwardi College Road, IK Road and Railgate to Taltala EPZ Road, known as the most important main roads of Ishwardi, have become unfit for movement for a long time.
Although the public suffering has reached the highest level, there does not seem to be any initiative to solve the problem. However, due to the movement of various types of vehicles carrying Russian and other foreign officials and employees on these three roads, the three roads are completely impassable, causing potholes to form in numerous places on the roads.
That is why the thought of moving on these three roads makes the hearts of the victims tremble. Due to the large potholes created on these three main roads, small and big accidents occur almost every day. Small vehicles are damaged, hundreds of people are injured. These three roads are as if they are without a guardian. There is no one to look after them. The roads that have collapsed include Ishwardi EPZ Road, Ishwardi-Kushtia Road and the road from Chand Ali intersection to Aronkhola intersection via College.
At Aronkhola Haat, the largest cattle market in North Bengal, buyers and sellers come from far and wide to meet the needs of buyers and sellers. Due to the fact that large trucks and various small and large vehicles are parked day and night, and there is no repair facility, this road has quickly collapsed and become unusable.
In the last one year, more than 20 accidents have occurred on this road, in which no lives have been lost during this period, but hundreds of people of all ages, both men and women, have been injured. Due to the lack of an alternative road, thousands of people have to travel every day, risking their lives. On the other hand, from Ishwardi Alhaj Sutakal intersection to Rupupur Project Residential Area on Kushtia Road to Diyar Sahapur Notun Hat intersection, numerous small and large vehicles are being damaged due to the collapse and potholes at various places on the road. The vision of moving vehicles on this road has become painful. Thousands of Russian citizens of the residential area of Rupupur project Green City, countless people from various unions and municipalities of Iswardi have reached the limit of suffering by traveling on this road. Various companies in Ishwardi EPZ of Ishwardi BEPZA, Pakshi Railway Division and Nuclear Project officials and employees, women, men and countless vehicles travel on this road.
As hundreds of trucks loaded with excess sand move every day, the road breaks and turns into potholes, causing obstacles in the movement of machinery of EPZ industrial institutions, import-export cargo trucks, covered vans and labor-carrying vehicles. The same situation is also being created in the movement of cargo trucks of nuclear power projects, construction material trucks of railway container yards. Due to these reasons, the Ishwardi EPZ authorities are in an embarrassing situation.
The EPZ authorities are in a terrible difficulty. The owners and workers of the investing industrial institutions and the stakeholders are in terrible difficulties. This has been revealed by the sources of the Nuclear Power Project, Pakshi Railway and EPZ. According to the sources, the road from Civil Hat Taltala intersection to Rooppur intersection highway is part of the SOJ.
The existing 7.31 meter wide and 2.12 kilometer long bypass road built by Ishwardi EPZ in the middle is its own road built by the EPZ. The road has been turned into a pothole by illegal sand traders with excessive sand loading in drum trucks and other vehicles for a long time. Since it is not possible to stop the movement of influential vehicles in any way and since there is a SOJ road all around the road, to eliminate the problem of repair and to create convenience for the legal users of the road, the EPZ authorities applied to the Executive Engineer of the SOJ in Pabna on January 24, 2023 to include it in the gazette. If the road is integrated into the SOJ grid, on the one hand, all the roads around the EPZ will be integrated.
As a result, road repair and maintenance will be easier. With the aim of socio-economic development of the people of the northwestern part of the country, along with the agricultural sector, the then government inaugurated the Ishwardi EPZ on 13 January 2001 on 309.97 acres of unused land of Bangladesh Railway in Pakshi, Ishwardi, with the aim of creating investment and employment through industrialization. 20 industrial enterprises are currently operating production activities in Ishwardi EPZ. Another 20 industrial enterprises are waiting to start their production activities.
About 17,000 workers/employees, including 66 foreigners, are working in the industrial enterprises that are producing. In addition, if the industrial enterprises waiting to start production start their activities, the amount of employment, investment and exports will increase gradually.
In order to maintain the investment flow of Ishwardi EPZ, as well as facilitate the movement of vehicles carrying import/export goods of industrial institutions and the activities of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Project and Railway Divisional Office, the 2.12 kilometer bypass road under the Hardinge Bridge built by Ishwardi EPZ was urgently included in the gazette of the Public Works Department and some measures were taken to repair it, but the rest have not been done. There has been a strong demand for urgent repair of the roads on the part of the patriotic conscious community.
