Padma Bridge rail track installation begins

The installation of railway track on the lower deck of Padma Bridge began on Saturday.

The road segmented of the two-level bridge – road on the top and rail line on the bottom – was opened to traffic on June 25.

Railways Minister Nurul Islam Sujan inaugurated the works at Jazira end of the bridge around 12:05pm.

During the inauguration, he said that the track installation will be completed within the next four months.

“Six passenger trains will run through the railway bridge,” he added.

The 169km Dhaka-Jashore Padma Bridge Rail Link Project, one of the government’s priority projects, will be completed in three parts — from Dhaka to Mawa, from Mawa to Bhanga, and from Bhanga to Jashore.

As of August 4, the project’s 62 per cent of the work has been completed from Dhaka to Mawa, 81 per cent completed from Mawa to Bhanga, and work progress from Bhanga to Jashore was 52 per cent.

Bangladesh Railway is implementing the rail link project to build the 169km rail line from Dhaka to Jashore through the Padma Bridge at a cost of around Tk 40,000 crore.

Bangladesh Railway had a plan to launch train operations along with road operations on Mawa-Bhanga section but later changed the decision as the bridge authority declined to hand over the bridge before opening due to “technical reasons”.

Earlier on June 25, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the much-awaited Padma Bridge with the incomplete railway tracks, and vehicular movement started the next day on the upper deck of the bridge.

The rail link project will set the southwestern region on the path to significant economic development.

The project will extend railway services from Jashore to Khulna. Once it is complete, it will take only four hours to reach goods to Dhaka from Mongla Port, said the railway officials.

The ECNEC in March 2016 approved the Padma Bridge Rail Link Project featuring construction of a 169 km railway line from Dhaka to Jashore at a cost of Tk 349.89 billion.

Bangladesh signed a $2.76 billion credit deal with China’s Exim Bank to implement the Padma Bridge Rail Link Project in 2018. Due to a delay in finalising the loan agreement, work on the project started in July.

After making reasonable adjustments to the timeline for the work, the project’s deadline was extended by two years to December 2024.

After construction work began, the project encountered another setback in the form of the coronavirus pandemic.