January 18, 2026 Times of Dakshin Dinajpur
A New Road, the Same Misery: Repair Dreams Collapse Within Hours
Kamal Kumar Biswas.TOD.Balurghat
For years, residents of a cluster of villages in Dakshin Dinajpur endured a road so ruined that even the region’s famously resilient electric rickshaws refused to use it after dark. When repairs finally began, hope returned. That hope lasted roughly as long as the asphalt itself.
On Sunday morning, villagers in Dumoir, under the Amritakhanda Gram Panchayat in Balurghat block, shut down a long-awaited road project after concluding that the new road was being built with the structural integrity of a stage prop.
The 12-kilometer stretch from Bishwaspara More in Balurghat town to Shalgram via Ayodhya had become virtually impassable. Accidents were common. Travel at night was considered adventurous, if not reckless. The Dakshin Dinajpur Zila Parishad's decision to repair the road was therefore welcomed across nearly ten villages, including Dumuir, Dolla, Kadapara, Ayodhya, Shalgram and Birohini.Residents believed they were finally getting infrastructure.
What they appear to have received instead was performance art.Villagers say the contractor began work in great haste, but without something as tedious as a publicly displayed construction schedule. Requests to see project details were ignored, perhaps to preserve the element of surprise.That surprise arrived quickly.Within hours of laying the pitch, the surface reportedly began to lift and crack under light traffic. Large holes formed almost immediately, transforming a brand-new road into what locals describe as a “heritage pothole site.”
“It is not a road,” one resident said. “It is a trial version.”The situation is worsened by heavy vehicles transporting materials for the Balurghat–Hili railway project, which regularly use the same route — a test no properly built road should fear, but one this road failed almost instantly.By Sunday morning, patience ran out. Villagers from multiple areas assembled and stopped construction altogether. Their demand was modest: that the road be built according to official specifications and last longer than a festival banner.Otherwise, they said, no work would proceed.Confronted with an unusually informed and unimpressed public, the construction company withdrew.
Residents are now urging the administration to step in and ensure a durable road is built — one meant for transportation, not for demonstrating how quickly public money can be turned into gravel.Until then, the villagers remain on familiar ground: standing on a broken road, waiting for it to be fixed properly for the first time.
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