Padma Bridge to reduce urbanisation pressure on Dhaka

The urbanization pressure on Dhaka city is expected to reduce as investors of different sectors will now pour funds into the country’s south and south-western regions to establish factories and generate new jobs to cash in on the opportunities created by the Padma Bridge.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina formally inaugurated the much-awaited Padma Multipurpose Bridge on Saturday. The bridge will open to traffic on Sunday.

Every day, a good number of people travel from different parts of the country to Dhaka looking for jobs and many of them settle down in the capital and its surrounding areas, creating pressure on the overall urbanization process.

The establishment of new factories on the other side of Padma River will generate more employment and people from the 21 southern districts will get the opportunity to work there without having to move. And that will significantly reduce workers’ migration to Dhaka, said experts.

As per several studies, the connectivity created by the bridge is expected to generate employment opportunities for more than 7.43 lakh people in the south.

“The government has done its work by opening the Padma Bridge, which will shorten travel time and establish better communication. Now it is our duty to properly utilize the opportunity and develop the south and south-western regions,” Abdus Salam Murshedy, the managing director of Envoy Group, told The Business Post.

Salam is the Member of Parliament from the Khulna-4 constituency and a former president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA).

“We will establish new factories in the region and people will be able to work without leaving their homes. This will decrease migration to Dhaka for work,” he said.

Investment opportunities and new jobs in the south and south-western Bangladesh would also lead to industrial decentralization and lower population concentration in and around the capital city.

“Entrepreneurs, who are from the south and southwest, mostly from Barishal, and doing business in Dhaka and Chattogram will relocate their businesses and invest here,” Saidur Rahman Rintu, president of Barishal Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI), told The Business Post.

“The lion’s share of workers of different industries, mainly from the readymade garment sector, comes from Barishal and Khulna regions.

“If business owners open factories here, these people will prefer working near their homes and that will cut down migration to the cities. As a result, the urbanisation pressures on Dhaka, Chattogram and other major industrial areas will decrease,” Saidur added.

“As per a rough BCCI estimation, at least 2 lakh jobs will be created soon after the Padma Bridge starts operating,” he said.

The workers’ living costs will also go down once they start living in their areas. At the same time, entrepreneurs will get skilled labour at a comparatively cheap cost, he opined.

“In line with our business principle, we choose places to invest where there is available labour. This is to create employment at their doors,” RN Paul, the managing director of RFL Group, told The Business Post.

“The opening of Padma Bridge is creating new opportunities and we’ll consider setting up factories in those regions,” he said.