Abrar Memorial Footbridge: Half-baked structure now being ‘retrofitted’

When private university student Abrar Ahmed Chowdhury died in a tragic road accident on March 19, 2019 in front of Jamuna Future Park on Dhaka's Pragati Sarani road, many students took to the street in protest, and in an instant move, the DNCC mayor announced to build a footbridge on that very spot to avoid further tragedies.

As per a decision, Dhaka North City Corporation let a business conglomerate build the bridge as part of the company's social corporate responsibility. No tender was floated for the work, but DNCC monitored the project, according to its officials.

In less than two years, the bridge is having to undergo further work.  

The footbridge was completed in the end of August 2019. However, a week later, it had to be closed, apparently due to the sheer volume of users.

Workers were recently seen replacing the railings of the bridge. Photo: Star

According to locals, the situation was so bad that people had to wait for 10-15 minutes to get on the 95-foot footbridge and get to the other side. Due to the overloading, the bridge literally shook, they said, adding that it also sparked complaints and criticisms on social media.

Asked about the situation, DNCC superintendent engineer Arifur Rahman had told The Daily Star a year back that they closed it as they needed to do some paint job and once escalators were installed on both sides of the footbridge by DNCC, the problem will be solved. He said there was no other reason for them to close the bridge. Meanwhile, the road median was kept open for people to cross the road.

DNCC set up escalators on both sides of the bridge last year. However, the 'charitable' work done by the first contractor proved to be inadequate, as DNCC had to contract another company to fix up quite a few issues.

Maisha Construction (Pvt) Ltd started the task of retrofitting the bridge last year, after getting the work tender from DNCC, said its officials.

A sign was also put up, which said the project -- "Retrofitting Works of Abrar Footover Bridge at Pragati Sarani Under DNCC" -- is ongoing, and the work duration was from 20-9-2020 to 9-3-2021. A week after the deadline, the work is still ongoing.

But there is a new problem now. According to construction officials, when the escalator is turned on, the bridge starts shaking.

"It has been only one year and within this time, the bridge needed to go through renovation work again. This shows how the bridge was built in the first place!" complained Tom Sangma, a local resident.

Many complained about the bridge's structure as a major portion of the footpath was occupied by its ramp. Some also said construction materials including bricks, tiles and sand remain piled up by roadside.

"They constructed the bridge, but they narrowed down the footpath. And now the bridge is closed again. What are they doing?" said a frustrated Farabi Rahman.

This time around, superintendent engineer Arifur Rahman had almost similar things to say.

"The company that built the bridge for us didn't provide any shades over the bridge. As we installed the escalators, we are now setting up those. Besides, we are also doing some footpath construction work as it got damaged," he told this correspondent recently.

"These were the reasons for which we primarily closed the bridge," he said. He also denied that the bridge shakes when the escalators are turned on.

About the complaints of footpath getting occupied by the ramp, he said they had to do it this way as there was a space constraint.

He also said by "retrofitting", they meant strengthening the railings on the footbridge and fixing the damaged portions of the footpath.

"We are not actually changing anything of the main structure," he said. "Once the footbridge opens by March 20, we'll close the crossing on the road and people will be able to use the footbridge again," he added.

However, officials at Maisha Construction had different things to say.

Its engineer Md Mohiuddin, who is supervising the project, said, "We started working according to a design given to us by DNCC. It suggested that along with the overall structure of the bridge, the pillars needed to be strengthened."

"So, we added metal support to the pillars, strengthened those by digging at least five feet, and also added shades and railings."

When asked why the company couldn't finish the work on time, he replied, "We got the design for retrofitting on time but not the design for the shade… It delayed the work. However, we'll finish the work before March 20."

Contacted, DNCC mayor Atiqul Islam last night told this correspondent, "Father of a friend of Abrar had offered to build that bridge, and we agreed considering his emotional involvement. The escalator was not part of that design. After opening, when we saw the high foot traffic, we decided to add those and knew that the bridge would need reinforcement if the escalators were added and the bridge's capacity increases. That is why we decided to do the retrofitting work at the very start."