A portion of the culvert on the Kainjar canal on the Kendua-Madan road in Netrakona district collapsed a few days ago. Thousands of people have suffered due to stall of vehicular movement between Kendua and Madan. The culvert was broken on April 12 but is yet to be repaired.
Since the collapse of the culvert, many have taken this matter to social media including Facebook. Out of a sense of social responsibility, the common people continued to provide information to Kendua Upazila administration and Kendua Thana along with placing warning sign boards on both sides of the broken culvert. Local Member of Parliament Asim Kumar, after receiving the news, inspected the bailey decking and soil repair work by Kendua LGED on the collapsed culvert on 15th April. The locals hoped that the culvert would be renovated before Eid. But the exposed bailey decking pieces were stolen within days because the bailey decking sets were not of proper length and the two sides of the decking were not welded with a bitumen, stone combination. Locals said that repairing the culvert with earth was a waste of government resources. At present, the culvert has to be crossed on foot and by motorcycles, rickshaws, bicycles. The youth of Kendua protested by posting pictures of the broken culvert on Facebook. Kinship and commercial relations between people of geographically important Kendua and Madan upazilas have been widespread since ancient times. Trade and commerce has been going on since establishment of these regions through several rivers flowing between the two upazilas. Madan Upazila is the original residence of many established businessmen of Kendua who are now permanent residents of Kendua. That is, the number of people traveling between Kendua and Madan is more than hundreds of thousand. Considering these aspects, the importance of the road connecting Kendua and Madan Upazila is very high.
In this regard, Kendua Upazila Engineer Mozammel Hossain said that in 1991, the bridge was broken due to the heavy trucks passing through it. A culvert was then constructed there. This has created obstacles in the movement of all types of vehicles including people and goods in two upazilas. The dilapidated culvert has been demolished and the estimate for the construction of a new and stronger culvert has been prepared and sent to the office of the concerned higher authorities. It is expected that this culvert will be constructed soon.
