Shabajpur Gas Field in Borhanuddin upazila of Bhola district is under threat of erosion by the river Meghna, sources said.
The implementation work of the river bank protection project has been going on at a snail’s pace, some local people said. Sources in the Water Development Board (WDB) said that the 7.3 kilometre long project was taken for preservation of Shabajpur Gas Field from the continuous erosion by the river Meghna in the year 2010. The sources also said that the said river bank protection project involving taka 1,23,00,000 was taken under the Shabajpur Gas Field Protection Plan.
The construction works were distributed among some contractors who had been ordered for the implementation of the construction works and placement of 51,868 pieces of CC blocks and 7,011,705 sand bags on the 5,110 kilometre long river bank.
But the contractors of the construction work failed to complete the work within the scheduled time.
At one stage, a team led by Executive Engineer of the Water Development Board, Tofael Hossain, formed a task force for monitoring and evaluation of the construction work.
At that time they had completed 50 to 55 per cent of the total work. Sources said that thousands of sand bags kept on the river bank are going to be damaged.
Md. Jhilon and Md. Shamsur Rahman, the representatives of the construction contractors, said that they had not dumped the sands bags due to the delay in release order of the monitoring team. But the monitoring team leader, Kazi Tofael Hossain, said that they had ordered to install the bags of coarse sand but the contractors installed the sacks of fine sand which would be dissolved with water immediately after the keeping on the river bank.
The people of the locality apprehend that the affected area would be devoured by the river Meghna in the upcoming rainy season.