Lalmonirhat-Burimari Highway: A 100km long death trap?
The 100-kilometre-long Lalmonirhat-Burimari Highway has become highly dangerous for vehicular movement.
In the last year since March 2023, a total of 43 accidents occurred on the highway, leaving 24 people dead and 48 injured, according to sources at police stations and police control room.
According to officials of Roads and Highways Department, the road -- constructed in 1988 connecting Lalmonirhat town with Burimari Land Port, and declared as part of the national highway in 1989 -- should be at 10.3-metre wide. However, being only 5.5-metre wide, the road is not spacious enough for the 3,000 vehicles -- including goods-laden trucks and passenger buses -- plying it daily, said the officials.
Also, with as many as 84 turns and nine railway crossings, the highway seems more like a death trap for people travelling on it.
All the railway crossings have gates and gatemen, while four pairs of trains move on Lalmonirhat-Burimari route daily, causing traffic congestion at all the crossings eight times a day.
"I drive trucks on highways across the country, but I haven't seen so many turnings, railway crossings and lack of space on any other highway. We use this route for transporting goods to and from Burimari Land Port," said Ataur Rahman, 50.
"It takes three and half hours to cross the highways. If there were not so many turnings and level crossings, it would have taken at least an hour less," said Shariful Islam, 48, a truck driver from Lalmonirhat town.
"Driving overloaded vehicles on the road is extremely risky and often accidents happen, especially when two vehicles are passing through the road at the same time," he added.
Mansur Ali, 45, a bus driver from Dhaka, and Akkas Hossain, 50, a resident of Kaliganj upazila of Lalmonirhat who rides motorcycle on the road for commute, echoed the same.
"No other highway in the country has so many turns and level crossings. It is also much less spacious compared to other highways as per design. Due to this it is quite risky for vehicular movement. We have plans to widen the road," said Khalid Saifullah Sardar, executive engineer of RHD in Lalmonirhat.
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