Vehicular movement on Padma Bridge by June 2022: Quader

Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader on Tuesday said the Padma Bridge will be opened for vehicular movement before June 2022.

“The Padma Bridge is now visible due to the efforts of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The Padma Bridge is no more a dream now but a reality,” he told a meeting through videoconferencing from his official residence in the capital.

The meeting was arranged on the bank of the Padma River at Naria in Shariatpur, marking the 75th birthday of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Chaired by Deputy Minister for Water Resources AKM Enamul Hoque Shameem, the meeting was addressed, among others, by Shariatpur-3 lawmaker Nahim Razzaque, Shariatpur Zila Parishad chairman and Awami League president Sabedur Rahman Khoka Sikdar, Shariatpur Zila AL general secretary Anal Kumar Dey and Shariatpur deputy commissioner Md Parvez Hasan.

A special doa was offered at the meeting on the occasion of the prime minister’s birthday where about 100 imams of mosques joined it.

Bangladesh is constructing the Padma Multipurpose Bridge, a road-rail bridge over the Padma River which will connect Mawa of Munshiganj and Jajira of Shariatpur, linking the south-west of the country, to northern and eastern regions.

Padma Bridge is considered to be the most challenging construction project in the history of Bangladesh. The two-level steel truss bridge will
feature a four-lane highway on the upper level and a single track railway on a lower level.

It will be the longest — 6.150 km — bridge in Bangladesh, and the longest over Ganges in terms of both span and the total length

The maximum depth of pile of this bridge is 122 metre, which is highest among all other bridges.

After inauguration, Padma Multipurpose Bridge will expected to boost the GDP of Bangladesh by 1.2 per cent.