Its sister bridge, the Shah Amanat Bridge, has met with the same face. It's nothing but a ramshackle of rotten wooden planks.

Both these bridges are the only lifeline between Chittagong and the southern district, Cox's Bazar.

With these two Bridges becoming almost inoperable thousands of people suffer inestimably in their daily journey from and to Chittagong.

There are many new bridges built across the country, in many areas of very small importance, and bridge-inauguration has become a culture with our ministers. But spanning bridges on the Karnafuly never seems to be on the priority list of the communications ministry.

The railway is the owner of the Kalurghat Bridge, and year after year it goes on just applying some face lifting, without ever going for an overhauling. The railway has enough money to do it, so it should start doing something about it. The Shah Amanat Bridge should be at once replaced by a modern concrete bridge.

That both these bridges have never been taken up for reconstruction looks to me to be a political defeat for the ministers from Chittagong. They have not been able to prevail over the central government, the communications minister in particular, to release fund for the development work of these two bridges.

Reports say that the jam at Kalurghat takes about four hours, and that at Shah Amanat three hours. Since big lorries are not allowed to ply on the Shah Amanat, there is an extra jam at the Kalurghat.

The traffic jam has chain effect on the routes to Chittagong. And, unfortunately, roads from these two bridges converge at Bahaddarhat, a permanently jammed-spot, and, about which we have written in this column so many times before.

The experience of the travellers is quite nightmarish. As the development in road communications all over the country has occurred, the bus service network has connected the furthest points with the capital. People now make journey from distant Teknaf to Benapole border by taking the same bus.

Against this increased mobility of people, the jams at the bridges are surely an encumbrance.

People also take buses that connect with the Chittagong and Dhaka airports direct. So, passengers catching international flights may be thwarted in their purpose by the delay at the bridges. Sick people also travel from south Chittagong to Chittagong, Dhaka, or across the border to India, for treatment. These patients may be having the worst ordeal of their life at these junctions.

I have a series of suggestions to make: Take up a rapid action plan to rebuild the bridges. Build a third bridge at the mouth of Patenga jetty, to diversify the routes. And, in the meantime, introduce a couple of ferries at the Khalurghat bridge point.

Besides, as feeding roads there may be two more roads carved out from the river up to the city bypassing Bahaddarhat altogether.