Believe it or not, villagers use bamboo-made ladders to get on a bridge on the Kharia river in Phulpur upazila of the district, as it has remained without approach road for a year.

A large number of people of Rambhadrapur, Singimari, Rehai Tarapur, Char Bahadurpur, Char Neamot, Boithamari, Mohishmari, Senerchar, Debuarchar, Sikderpara and Char Bosonti villages regularly use the bridge at Rambhadrapur.

"The bridge is too small compared to the river's width and so, it becomes useless in the rainy season. During the dry season when the river gets narrow, thousands of people including students somehow use the bridge with the help of ladders," said Md Rokunuzzaman Rukon, chairman of Rambhadrapur union parishad.

"We have sent proposal for extension of the bridge to cover the whole breadth of the river," he said.

"Due to lack of bridge that hampers communication with upazila and district headquarters, we cannot get reasonable prices of our agricultural produces," said Adam Ali, a farmer of Rambhadrapur. 

Asked why the 40-foot-bridge was constructed over some 200-foot-wide river, Md Zakir Hossain, project implementation officer of Phulpur, said there was a proposal for a 60-foot-bridge but the 40-foot-long bridge was approved and constructed due to fund constraints.

Work of the approach road could not be completed due to the same reason, he said, adding that they would start the work yesterday [Tuesday] to complete the bridge's approach road soon.