Sylhet Bureau

Irregularities have been found in the construction of a bridge at Faturkhara near Rahmatpur area under Balaganj upazila of Sylhet district.Bridge construction contractor is trying to complete the work outside the rules in the construction of the bridge.Not only that, there have also been complaints that people are continuing to work on the bridge in the dark of night in three different ways.

Locals alleged that the work was being done secretly during the night. It is known from the sources, under Sylhet Road Division under the Department of Roads and Highways, additional chief engineer of Sylhet Road Division through ID No. 743873 tender in 2022-2023 financial year. Fazle Rabbe invited tenders for the construction of Faturkhara PC Girder Bridge in Balaganj. In the light of that tender, on May 27, 2023, the 21st km of Sylhet Sultanpur Balaganj road of Balaganj upazila will be completed.

The construction work of 76.01 meter length Faturkhara PC Girder Bridge started. The estimated cost of the bridge has been estimated at 16 crore 48 lakh rupees. A company called JanJB was appointed as the contractor for the construction of the bridge.

According to the design and drawing of the work, 32 piles of 45 meters each are supposed to be built in Faturkhara girder bridge, but most of the piles are 24 meters and some of them are 36 meters. So that piles have been reduced to 21 meters and 9 meters. The cages that were made by the contractor JohnJB Rod were measured to be 12 meters each. Local Residents said that the length of the pile in the construction of the bridge will be reduced due to which the bridge will become very weak, if there is more traffic, the bridge may break.

The most surprising thing is that the contractor has done the pile work in the dark of night without any regard for the rules so that the journalists and the local people cannot know about the depth of the pile. All the pile works were completed late at night.

Locals including journalists informed Sub-Divisional Engineer Mahmudul Hasan and Executive Engineer Amir Hossain about the work of welding in the dark of night and reducing the depth of the pile, but they showed indifference. They are alleged to have cooperated with the contractor without taking any legal action against them.

In order to reduce the amount of rod-cement in the pile casting work and to make irregularities in the depth of the pile, all the pile casting work has been completed in the dark of the night in order to make systematic irregularities and corruption in both the RHD authorities vaccination institutes. No appropriate official of the Roads and Highways Department was present on the ground during any pile casting.

However, according to rules, Sub-Divisional Engineers and Sub-Assistant Engineers are required to be present on site during pile casting. There was no end to irregularities and corruption in the casting of 32 piles. Now they are preparing to start the next work without doing the pile integrity test. Al Amin, a local resident of Rahmatpur area, said that the contracting company has committed extensive irregularities in Faturkhara Bridge. The bridge pile provided less than the rod cage quantity and worked in the dark of night.

During the conversation, Lutfur Rahman, director of the contracting company, said, "I did not go to inspect the said work, as far as I know, there was no corruption-irregularity and if there was any corruption-irregularity, then the concerned officials of the office did it." Executive Engineer of Sylhet Road and Highway Department Amir Hossain was asked about the corruption of this bridge, he said, if there is corruption, you report it.