Around 250 kilometres of highways and rural roads in Beanibazar upazila of Sylhet have fallen into disrepair, causing severe hardship for commuters.
The roads riddled with potholes and damaged surfaces, have made vehicular movement slow and risky, often triggering long tailbacks.
Commuters say travel time has increased significantly.
Locals alleged that it now takes nearly twice as long as before to reach Beanibazar municipal town due to the poor condition of the roads.
Officials concerned attribute the worsening situation to substandard construction, lack of regular maintenance and the movement of overloaded vehicles.
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Sources said about Tk 300 crore would be needed to repair the damaged road network.
Sajjadur Rahman, an official of the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) in charge of Beanibazar, said around 29.5 kilometres of road — from Charkhai to Baraigram and Sheola to Sutarkandi — fall under RHD.
“Of these, at least 10 kilometres require urgent repair. A proposal has already been sent to the higher authorities. Work will begin once approval is received,” he said.
He added that more durable methods including the use of concrete in waterlogged areas are being planned for the upcoming repair work.
According to municipality sources, around 39 kilometres of roads in the municipal area remain unpaved.
Besides, most of the roughly 60 kilometres of paved and brick roads are in need of urgent repair.
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Limited revenue and budget constraints have made it difficult to carry out development work evenly across all wards over the past year, officials said.
Broken roads have now become the main source of suffering for residents, with most of the approximately 4.5 kilometres of carpeting roads already damaged.
Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) sources said there are 347 roads under its jurisdiction in the upazila, with a total length of 627 kilometres.
Of these, 372 kilometres are earthen, 105 kilometres paved and 182 kilometres semi-paved.
Upazila Sub-Assistant Engineer Saiful Islam said around 202 kilometres of road require urgent repair.
Meanwhile, the upazila project implementation office is carrying out earth-filling and small bridge construction work on rural roads under Kabikha and Kabita projects based on demands from union parishad chairmen.
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Beanibazar Upazila Nirbahi Officer Umme Habiba Majumdar said repair work on the damaged roads has started gradually.
She expressed hope that public suffering would ease once the repairs are completed.