Mightier than the Padma

It was a bolt from the blue when the World Bank in June 2012 canceled the $1.2 billion credit with immediate effect, which they had agreed to provide so that Bangladesh can build the Padma Multipurpose Bridge – the country’s largest and most ambitious infrastructure project.

The international agency claimed to have proof of a “corruption conspiracy” involving Bangladeshi officials, executives of a Canadian firm, and other individuals.

A Canadian court threw those allegations away much later, rejecting the worthless evidence placed before it. But the damage had already been done. Bangladesh lost its pride for a while in the eyes of the whole international community.

The dreams of more than 30 million people living in the 21 South-Southwest districts on the other side of River Padma shattered.

Bangladesh tried to convince the World Bank by responding to their demands – a minister resigned, officials were put behind bars and an inquiry was launched. But none of those steps were enough to make the agency reconsider.

Not in the habit of backing down in the face of overwhelming odds, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina took the bravest decisions ever, announcing at a budget session in Parliament back in July 2012 that Bangladesh will build the Padma Bridge with its own funds.

Starting out as an ambitious dream, the bridge has now become a reality ten years after the prime minister’s bold announcement, awaiting inauguration by Sheikh Hasina on June 25.

Bangladesh succeeded in the journey, but it was not a cakewalk. People involved with the project’s implementation said they struggled to build the bridge on a river like the Padma, which – after the Amazon – has the strongest current in the world.

Moreover, Bangladesh did not have the experience required for implementing such a mega bridge project.

Addressing a recent programme held at the Dhaka Cantonment, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said, “The decision to build the Padma Bridge using own finance has brightened Bangladesh’s image across the globe and boosted the country’s confidence.

“The World Bank halted financing for this project without holding a board meeting, with the connivance of a person bringing a false allegation of corruption, which was later proved baseless.”

Recently, Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming too said that the Padma Bridge is so far the largest bridge Chinese companies have ever built outside China. “So I think accepting the challenge was also a courageous step taken by the Chinese side,” he had said.

The project involves 13 technologies which have never been used anywhere in the world, so the whole project was full of experiments that have never been done before, Jiming pointed out, adding, “Whenever I think of the Padma Bridge, 3 words come to my mind – courage, determination and prosperity.”

Despite the hurdles, the Padma Bridge’s construction finally began on November 26, 2014. More than 500 local engineers worked shoulder-to-shoulder with 3,500 foreign engineers from Chinese construction firms to complete the mammoth task.

An arduous journey spanning 2 decades

The Awami League-led government initiated a pre-feasibility test for the Padma Bridge back in 1999. The foundation stone of the bridge was laid by the then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on July 4, 2001.

Later in 2007, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) approved a Tk 10,000 crore project proposal during the then caretaker government, and initiated the design work with financial assistance from the Asian Development Bank.

The Awami League-led government completed a feasibility study in 2009, and then sought financial assistance from development partners to make the project a reality.

Within two years, Bangladesh finalised loan agreements worth $2.3 billion with four development partners – $1.2 billion with World Bank, $415 million with JICA, $140 million with IDB, and $615million with ADB.

The project costs were estimated at around $2.90 billion or around Tk 20,000 crore. After the agreements were canceled, the then Finance Minister AMA Muhith explained in Parliament on July 2, 2012 what had happened.

He said the World Bank has postponed the loan disbursement citing the excuse of an ongoing investigation against Canadian company SNC-Lavalin – which submitted a tender for supervision consultancy for the Padma Bridge’s construction – in Canada.

The agency claimed to have found irregularities in the process of appointing consultants and selection procedure of the construction firms.

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In Bangladesh, the Anti-Corruption Commission too started an investigation and the government promised to blacklist SNC-Lavalin. Bangladesh also proposed that investigation and project implementation should be considered separately.

Bangladesh urged to let tenders be floated to choose construction firms for the bridge, allow the signing of an agreement with the IDB for approach road construction from Zajira, setting up pre-qualification for construction firms for Mawa approach road, and river training work.

Meanwhile, responding to an informal proposal of the World Bank, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina terminated the Padma Bridge project director, and changed the then incumbent communication minister’s portfolio.

But the World Bank was not happy, and advised suspending the construction until the Canadian investigation was completed.

A few days later, the ACC sent their investigation report to the World Bank saying it did not find any element of corruption in the tendering process. But the World Bank was still not satisfied.

The Bangladesh government continued to hold discussions with the World Bank in Dhaka, Washington and other places on this matter, but to no avail.

In a speech to Parliament during that period, Muhith said, “I believe that the World Bank president has never taken any of our proposals into cognisance. One of our representatives visited Washington again, but could not meet the World Bank president as he was busy.

“Our representative continues to discuss the matter with other senior officials of the World Bank.”

On April 9, 2012, the World Bank informed Bangladesh that the investigation in Canada was at final stage and authorities concerned had arrested two officials of the SNC-Lavalin.

The international agency then came up with a proposal that indicates that they wanted Bangladesh to admit corruption. At this stage of discussion, the World Bank cancelled the loan scheme.

Commenting on the cancellation, the then finance minister had said the way this international agency cancelled its agreement with Bangladesh was procedurally flawed and by doing so they have tarnished Bangladesh’s image.

“The World Bank simply cannot dent the image of a nation based on unfounded allegations,” he had said.

Bangladesh moves forward with own funds

Bangladesh started the construction of Padma Bridge – the largest infrastructure project of the country till date – with its own funds on November 26, 2014. The government allocated Tk 6,852 crore, the largest chunk, in FY 2013-14.

The government continued to allocate large sums of money for the project every year, and did not stop for a day since the Padma Bridge’s construction began.

This project was divided into five parts – the main bridge, river training, connecting road with toll plaza at Mawa end, the same at Jajira end, and construction of Service Area 2.

Bangladesh selected China Major Bridge Engineering Construction Company (MBEC) for implementing the main bridge construction at a cost of Tk 12,133 crore. Chinese company Sinohydro Corporation Ltd was chosen to carry out river training. 

Mawa and Jajira approach roads and Service Area 2 construction was awarded to Abdul Monem Ltd. Four consulting firms and three non-government organizations (NGOs) were appointed to oversee the whole work.

The Bangladesh Army and Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) were responsible for connecting roads and service areas, while Korea Expressway Corporation oversaw the main bridge work and river training.

A UK firm was hired as a management support consultant.

Grappling with mounting costs

The DPP for the Padma Bridge Project was amended in 2016, 2018 and 2019. The expenditure rose to Tk 28,793 crore in the 2016 amendment and finally to Tk 30,193 crore in 2018.

Bangladesh recorded the first cost hike after floating all tenders, citing causes such as the decrease of Taka’s value against USD, an increase in land acquisition costs, shifting of ferry terminals, addition of another 1.3 kilometers in river training, and procuring modern vehicles. 

Designing, planning of Padma Bridge

The then caretaker government in 2007 called tender to hire a consultant for the design of Padma Bridge. Though approving the DPP with an estimated cost of Tk 10,162 crore, the caretaker government could not appoint the firm they had selected for this purpose.

After the Awami League came to power again in 2009, it hired a New Zealand-based consulting firm to complete the bridge’s design, and then railway was added to the plan. In the meantime, land acquisition started as well.

The Padma Bridge design was finalised in 2010. The DPP was amended in January of 2011, which increased the cost of this project to Tk 20,508 crore. The length of this bridge also increased from 5.58km to 6.15 km.

The initial DPP was designed to let water vessels pass through the bridge under three of the 41 spans. But in the final decision, the navigation facility was made available through the gaps of 37 spans.

The first DPP revision added rail connections capable of carrying more load. Steel infrastructure was added instead of concrete, and extra depth was also taken into account in the piling process.

Besides, the cost of rehabilitation of the affected people was increased. The construction deadline was fixed to 2015.

Architectural challenges was a mammoth task

Prof Shamim Z Bosunia, chairman of the government’s expert panel, told The Business Post recently that their main challenge was piling that started in March, 2015.

Providing more details, he said, “The River Padma is treacherous because of its very deep and swift flowing nature. The main river flows between piers from 12 to 23. At the Zajira end, the river is like a canal and a lot of silt accumulates every day.

“There are even instances of 20-25 foot silt deposits accumulating in just one monsoon.”

Bosunia continued, “We started pilling and stopped. Then we dredged for two months to remove the slit. In rainy seasons, engineers struggled to work in the mid river areas as current is very high there.”

Pillars are built on piling work done for the bridge and a steel span was placed on it. There are 264 piles which were installed under 40 pillars.

The radius of each pile was three meters with 62 mm thickness. Six to seven piles were placed under each pillar and the piles have been placed at a maximum depth of 412 feet from the ground at the bottom of the river.

Each of the pile is capable of carrying a load of 8,250 tonnes and each pillar can carry a load of about 50,000 tonnes. The pillars can handle the impact of a ship with a capacity of 4,000 deadweight tonnage (DWT).

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“No other bridge across the globe has such piling work installed in such a depth. It is a mammoth task,” Prof Shamim said.

Hydraulic hammers were used for the piling work. Of the hammers, three were brought from Germany, and two from the Netherlands. The power of these hammers was from 1,900 to 3,000 kilojoules.

Another 32 piles have been laid on both banks of the river Padma. However, they are made with rods. Bosunia mentioned that the Covid-19 pandemic and difficulties in setting up the piling process delayed the bridge’s construction by almost two years.

Piling started at the Mawa end to place six piles under each pillar. But a soft soil layer was found while placing three piles under the 6th and 7th pillars. Piling is usually done deep in the soil, where rocks or hard soil layers are found.

But in the beginning, even after going to the depth as planned, the work on placing the piles was stopped as the soil was found to be soft. They started soil testing and found soft soil under 12 more piles.

The authority then appointed a UK consultancy firm who suggested adding one extra pile under some pillars and hardening the soil with a mixture of ultra-fine cement with grooved piles at the base of the pillars.

The government’s expert panel headed by late National Professor Jamilur Reza Choudhury accepted the recommendation, and they placed seven piles under each 22 pillars of the main bridge, and six under 18 pillars. Sixteen piles were placed under the two abutments as well.

There was also a design fault in the Padma Bridge Rail Link Project (PBRLP), but it was resolved later.