Padma bridge becomes fully visible with final span installed

The much awaited Padma Multipurpose Bridge became entirely visible on Thursday after the installation of the last span on the bridge at Mawa point.
With the final span installed on 12th and 13th pillars , 91 per cent of the construction work of the 6.15-kilometre bridge between Mawa point in Munshiganj and Janjira point at Shariatpur is now completed. The road-cum-rail bridge across the River Padma will connect the capital with 21 south-western districts of the country.
Cabinet secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam at a seminar in the capital on Thursday appreciated the installation of the last and 41st span of the bridge.
He said that the bridge will be opened for traffic in June 2022.
The overall progress of the Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project till now stands at 82.5 per cent with the current deadline set at June 2021 after at least four extensions, which lead to the escalation of the project cost, said bridges division officials. Finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on August 26 said that the construction of the project would miss the current deadline of June 2021 due to the COVID-19 outbreak and the work would now be completed in 2022.
It took more than three years to install all 41 steel and 150-meter length spans of the bridge after prime minister Sheikh Hasina had inaugurated the construction work in December 2015.
Now the double-deck bridge awaits setting up of the concrete road and railway slabs for the movement of road transports on the upper and train on the lower decks of the bridge.
Bangladesh Railway is implementing the rail portion on the bridge under another project.
New Age correspondent in Munshiganj reported that the project manager Dewan Abdul Quader on Thursday confirmed that they started to install the last span, weighing 3,200 tonnes, at 9:40am and it was finally installed by around 12:00pm.
Earlier, 20 spans were installed at Janjira point, 19 at Mawa and one at the middle point of Mawa and Janjira points.
The project director M Shafiqul Islam told New Age that all the programmes for the installation were cancelled following the ongoing COVID-19 situation.
According to the project office, the first span of the bridge was installed on September 30, 2017 and after the installation of the 31st span on June 10 this year, the work was postponed for four months following the flood situation.
Till now, out of 2,917 roadway slabs 1,333, out of 2,959 railway slabs 1,942 and out of 484 Super-T girders at Mawa and Janjira viaducts, 321 were installed and the approach roads on the two sides of the bridge had been completed.
The physical progress of river training works till now is around 76 per cent.
The 22-meter-wide road on the bridge will have four-lanes while the road and the rail track will be separated at viaduct points.
After an initial setback following the cancellation of a $1.2 billion loan deal by the World Bank on the allegation of ‘attempt of corruption’ in 2012, the government decided to build the bridge with its own funds.
A Chinese firm was appointed in 2014 through an international tender.
The initial estimate drawn up in 2007-08 for the bridge was Tk 10,161 crore.
According to the first Development Project Proforma, the project was scheduled to be completed by 2014.
But in 2011, the DPP was revised to set the second deadline of 2015 and the project cost doubled to Tk 20,507 crore.
In 2015, the government again revised the project cost by 40 per cent, raising the cost to Tk 28,793 crore and the deadline was reset until 2018.
In 2018, the deadline was again extended to December 2019 while the cost shot up to Tk 30,193 crore.
The current deadline, which expires in June 2021, was set last year.
The bridge will introduce direct communications between Mongla sea port and Benapole land port and the capital and the port city.
China Major Bridge Engineering Co. Ltd, China is implementing works of the main bridge while another Chinese company Sinohydro Corporation is implementing the river training works.
Bangladeshi company Abdul Monem Limited is constructing the two approach roads and other infrastructures. Source:New Age