Desk Report,
There were no warning signs, a major accident could have occurred during the day
When the 45-year-old bridge built over the Shital Jharna Canal collapsed at 6 am on Thursday, it was raining heavily in Chittagong city. The bridge is located on Bayezid Bostami Road. It is one of the main and busiest roads in the city, on which 60 to 70 thousand vehicles ply every day. However, it was early in the morning when the bridge collapsed. As a result, there was no traffic pressure. Fortunately, a major accident was avoided.
There were no warning signs, a major accident could have occurred during the day
This bridge was built at the mouth of Starship Alley in Oxygen in Chittagong city in 1980. Senior engineers of the Chittagong City Corporation, who are in charge of its maintenance, admitted that the bridge was risky. They claimed that they had taken a project to rebuild the bridge before it collapsed. But even though the bridge was risky, the City Corporation did not hang any warning message or signboard there.
When asked, Executive Engineer of the City Corporation Mohammad Rifatul Karim Chowdhury said that since the bridge was risky, they took the initiative to demolish it and rebuild it at the end of the monsoon season. They did not expect that the bridge would collapse during the monsoon season. There were no warning signs or signboards for this.
Now, the City Corporation has formed a four-member investigation committee headed by the chief engineer to determine the cause of the bridge collapse and make recommendations on how to avoid it in the future. The other members of the committee are the chief sanitation officer, a representative of the Chittagong Development Authority and the concerned executive engineer of the City Corporation. The committee has been asked to submit a report within four working days. Along with the engineers and officials of the City Corporation, local people also said that the bridge had seemed risky for many days. Many officials had visited it before. But nothing happened.
There is Abul Kalam’s tea shop and Kamal Uddin’s paan-cigarette shop next to the bridge. They said that the bridge had been shaking since 5 am on Thursday. However, they did not pay much attention. But at 6 am, the bridge suddenly gave way and collapsed. Since it was early in the morning, there were no cars on the road. However, if the bridge had collapsed during the day, a major accident would have occurred.
It was learned from talking to local residents, shopkeepers, and traffic police that although the bridge was risky, there was no warning sign or signboard. They say that the City Corporation could have at least hung a red flag or some signboard.
Local resident and school teacher Abul Mansur told Prothom Alo that he regularly commutes to school over this road bridge. He went there today too. If the time had changed, he might have been the victim of an accident himself. It is incomprehensible why the City Corporation has left such a risky bridge like this. Such negligence towards human life and property cannot be accepted.
Today, it can be seen on the ground that the bridge is built on a brick foundation. But the brick foundation collapsed on both sides of the road and the middle part collapsed. As a result, the bridge has broken into three pieces. Now ropes have been stretched around it. Two large water pipes of WASA have passed next to the collapsed part of the bridge.
Since one side collapsed, vehicles are now plying from the oxygen towards gate number 2. However, a large hole has been created in the ground on this side as well. Traffic police have to stop traffic on one side when a vehicle passes through. This has created traffic jams on both sides. Especially during school holidays, long queues of vehicles can be seen. And since it is the last day of the weekly working day, traffic congestion may increase in the evening, said the traffic police officials in charge.
Chittagong City Corporation Chief Engineer Anisur Rahman told Prothom Alo that the bridge has been risky for a long time. Especially after the widening of the Sital Jharna canal under the waterlogging relief project, the risk has increased. Because the width of the canal had increased at that time. Since the bridge was risky, initiatives have been taken to repair it. An estimate of 8 crore taka has been made for the repair of the bridge. The process of issuing a tender notice is underway.
Delwar Majumdar, former chairman of the Chittagong center of the Institution of Engineers Bangladesh (IEB), went to see it after receiving news of the collapse of the bridge on the busiest road. He told Prothom Alo that the way the canal was widened, the bridge was as narrow as before. As a result, the rain water coming down from above would push the bridge. The bridge has collapsed today due to the continuous movement of the soil. Now, it will not be enough to just repair it, the bridge will have to be as wide as the canal.
After receiving the news of the bridge collapsing on the busiest road in the city, Chittagong City Corporation Mayor Shahadat Hossain also visited the scene this morning. He said that work was done on the canal under the waterlogging relief project. This incident occurred when the soil of the bridge shifted due to the flow of water in the canal. However, there is a plan to make the bridge 60 feet wide. Now it will be built quickly.
