Still unfit for traffic

The Khagrachhari-Rangamati link road, which was damaged by landslides over a week ago, is still unfit for traffic as its repair work started yesterday, causing immense sufferings to commuters.

Landslide-hit Rangamati-Chittagong link road opened for light vehicles on Wednesday. 

Officials of the roads and highways department in Rangamati said landslides damaged around two kilometres of the Khagrachhari-Rangamati link road. 

Landslides claimed around 120 lives in Rangamati.

This correspondent yesterday morning found that people travelling between Khagrachhari and Rangamati had to cross the two-km damaged road on foot.

Apu Talukder, 35, who works for “Akti Bari, Akti Khamar” (one house, one farm) project, along with his two-year-old child was travelling on the road. He said, "It is very hard to walk on the road; it should be repaired very soon."

An elderly woman is carried by two youths from Baghaichhari to a Rangamati hospital as the road communications between the two places remain snapped. The photo taken yesterday.

Talking to The Daily Star, Sadhan Moni Chakma and Manik Dhan Chakma, of Montola Para in Rangamati's Naniarchar upazila, said they did not know how long the repair work would take to complete. If the road is repaired soon, it will be good for them, they said.

Al Amin and Mohammad Sumon, sons of Rokeya Akther, 52, of Bogachhari, had to carry their mother to Rangamati General Hospital for emergency treatment as condition of the two-km road was bad.

Contacted, Abu Musa, sub-assistant engineer of the roads and highways department in Rangamati, said it would take more than a week to complete the repair work.

Amal Kanti Chakma, headman (chief) of Dholuchhari Mouza, said the district administration should fix the road as soon as possible.