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| History of Padma Bridge in Bangladesh: Picture Ronju130 |
Location
The Padma River Crosses Louhajong, Munshiganj to Shariatpur,
Madaripur & Mawa, Faridpur.
Design
A team of international and national consultants was formed to design the Padma Multipurpose Bridge. All the design work of the Padma Bridge was done within the framework of AECOM’s Management System (QMS). A panel of five national and five international experts was set up to review the design.
Also, an
independent checking engineer was hired to review the design criteria,
specifications and drawings produced by the Flint & Blue design team. The
detailed design of the Padma Bridge was done at the ECOM Hong Kong office.
Construct by
It is main tributary of the Ganges is the multi-purpose road-rail bridge across the river Padma. It will connect Louhjong, Munshiganj with Shariatpur and Madaripur, which will connect the south-west, north and east of the country.
Padma Bridge is the biggest challenging construction
project in the history of Bangladesh. Construction of the Padma Bridge started
by China Major Bridge Engineering Company Limited on 7 December 2014 and will
be completed by the end of June 2022.
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| First state of Padma Bridge: Picture Ronju130 |
Construction cost
The construction of
the 6.15 km long Padma Bridge, the dream of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina,
daughter of Bangabandhu, has cost Rs 1,301.933 billion ($ 3.6 billion USD). The
span of Padma bridge is 41, lane is 4, length is 6,241 meters (20,476 feet) and
width is 18.18 meters (59.6 feet).
History
The Bangladesh Bridge Authority budgeted the bridge in April 10. Work on the bridge was scheduled to begin in 2011. But due to the corruption of some people involved in the project, the World Bank moved away from him. Due to this the work of Padma bridge was almost stopped.
The Bangladesh government then decided to fund the project on its own. It was then proposed to build the bridge at a cost of two billion dollars. China came forward in two thousand and fourteen and its work was started by a Chinese company.
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| Current state of Padma Bridge: Picture Ronju130 |
Current status of project
The work on the Padma Bridge is mainly divided into five
sections.
1. The construction of the main bridge
2. River training
3,4. Two connecting roads
5. Infrastructure.
As of November 27, 2020, construction of 42 of the 42
pillars has been completed. The final (41) span of the bridge was installed on
10 December 2020. About 89.25% work of 6.15 km long Padma Multipurpose Bridge
has been completed till November 2020.
Debate
From the very beginning, the issue of Padma Bridge was involved in controversy and conspiracy. The World Bank says there are indications of corruption among Bangladeshi government and non-government officials involved in the Padma Multipurpose Bridge project.
For this reason,
the World Bank initially refused to build the bridge and imposed conditions on
the government. Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain had to resign on one
condition.
The World Bank sent a three-member panel led to review the steps taken by the ACC in the Padma Bridge investigation. As per the panel's recommendation, the ACC has filed a case against former secretary of the bridge department Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan and six high-ranking government officials. Bhuiyan had to stay in jail in the case.
