Sharif Ahmed, Dakshin Surma (Sylhet)  

Nearly 2,000 concrete electric poles belonging to the Power Development Board (PDB) Sales and Distribution Division-3 have been left abandoned and deteriorating alongside major thoroughfares in Dakshin Surma Upazila.

The electric poles, stored haphazardly in the Telibazar area along the Sylhet-Sunamganj Bypass Road and the Islam Nagar area along the Dhaka-Sylhet National Highway, are developing cracks and sustaining structural damage due to prolonged exposure and administrative neglect.

According to sources at PDB Sales and Distribution Division-3, consumers across eight unions in Dakshin Surma and nine wards of Sylhet City Corporation face persistent pole shortages, but government regulations restrict allocations to a maximum of two poles per applicant. Each electric pole incurs a minimum state manufacturing cost of approximately Tk 15,000. Meanwhile, authorities at Palli Bidyut Samiti Sylhet-1 assured consumers in several villages under Moghlabazar, Daudpur, Jalalpur, and Lalabazar areas that pending pole demands would be addressed by December.

Dakshin Surma Press Club President Md. Ashrafull Islam Imran noted that while rural electrification expansion remains ongoing, leaving heavy concrete poles abandoned along roadside margins poses severe civic and safety hazards, wasting public funds and increasing traffic accident risks. Local residents added that drug abusers frequently utilize the abandoned poles as cover after dark, continuing illicit activities despite routine police patrols.

Addressing the issue, Executive Engineer Shams-e-Arefin of PDB Sales and Distribution Division-3 stated that pole allocations are conducted in accordance with established rules and affirmed that the abandoned poles would be removed from the roadside sites as quickly as possible.