Padma Bridge

Padma Bridge or Padma Multipurpose Bridge is a multipurpose road and rail bridge built over the Padma River in Bangladesh. Through this, Shariatpur and Madaripur districts have been connected with Lauhjong of Munshiganj. The bridge was inaugurated on June 25, 2022. On this day, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, personally climbed the Padma Bridge for the first time by paying the toll from the Mawa end, thereby opening the bridge.

The Padma bridgimpe

The construction of Padma Bridge is considered to be the most challenging construction project in the history of Bangladesh. The two-tiered steel and concrete truss bridge has a four-lane road at the top and a single rail at the bottom. The bridge in the Padma-Brahmaputra-Meghna river basin consists of 41 spans, each 150.12 m (492.5 ft) long and 22.5 m (64 ft) wide. The total length of the bridge is 6.15 km (3.62 miles). It is the longest bridge in Bangladesh, the longest bridge built on the Ganges in terms of span number and total length and the deepest pile bridge in the world, with a depth of 120 meters (390 feet).

Bangladesh's GDP is expected to increase by 1.2 per cent after the bridge is operational.

History[edit | edit source]

On September 16 1998, the Government of Bangladesh proposed a Tk 3,643.50 crore project to build a bridge over the Padma River on the Dhaka-Mawa-Bhanga-Khulna highway to establish a direct link between the capital Dhaka and the south and south-western regions of the country. At 5 kilometres long and 18.10 meters wide, the bridge was considered the longest possible bridge in the country. The proposal stated that the bridge's construction would start in July 1999 and be completed in June 2004. It was planned to provide Tk 2,693.50 crore from foreign sources and Tk 750 crore from national sources for the proposed construction. Later, in May 1999, a pre-feasibility study for the bridge project began. On July 4, 2001, -Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina laid the foundation stone of the bridge at the Mawa-Jajira end. After the 8th general election, the next government's advisory committee conducted a pre-implementation feasibility study at Paturia-Daulatdia Point, Dohar-Charbhadrasan Point, Mawa-Jajira Point and Chandpur-Vedarganj Point. Nippon Koei, a consultant appointed by JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) in 2004, after conducting a detailed study on the construction of the Padma Bridge, suggested the construction of the bridge at the previously scheduled Mawa-Jajira point.

In the 2006-2007 Annual Development Program, the then Government of Bangladesh adopted a plan to build the Padma Multipurpose Bridge. The caretaker government initiated talks to seek assistance from the Asian Development Bank to construct the bridge. After a feasibility study, on August 20 2007, the caretaker government approved the Padma Bridge project at a cost of Tk 10,161 crore at the ECNEC meeting. Then, the target was set to build the bridge by 2015. For this, tenders were also called for the detailed design of the Padma Bridge that year.

Before the 2008 general elections, the Bangladesh Awami League promised to build the Padma Bridge. In its election manifesto, after winning the election, the Awami League government implemented the project. Then, it was informed that the construction work of the Padma Bridge would start in 2011. For this, a consulting firm was appointed 2009 to prepare the design, and the land acquisition work started. The World Bank, Asian Development Bank, JICA and Islamic Development Bank have pledged to finance the bridge's construction. On April 28 2009, Bangladesh signed a loan agreement with the World Bank.

In April 2010, the Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BASEC) invited pre-qualification tenders to construct the central infrastructure of the Padma Bridge. According to the first plan, the bridge's construction was supposed to start in early 2011, and the significant work would be completed by 2013. As per the plan, the project will cover three districts: Munshiganj (Mawa Point/North Bank), Shariatpur and Madaripur (Janjira/South Bank). The total land required and acquired for this is 917 hectares.

Although the caretaker government passed the Padma Bridge project in 2008, the Awami League government came and connected the railways, and on January 11, 2011, revised the bridge cost in the first phase. At that time, its cost was estimated at 20 thousand 507 crores. Later, the cost of Padma Bridge was increased by another eight thousand crore rupees. As a result, the total cost of the Padma Bridge was 28 thousand 793 crores.

In April 2011, Bangladesh signed a 1.20 billion loan agreement with the World Bank. On May 18 of the same year, the government signed a loan agreement with JICA for $41.5 million and on June 6 with ADB for $61.5 million. On October 10, 2011, the World Bank suspended the financing of the Padma project, citing corruption. Later, the name of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's economic adviser, Moshiur Rahman, was also linked to the allegations of corruption. On November 14, 2011, Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, Secretary of the Bridges Department, was transferred and appointed Executive Chairman of the Special Economic Zones Authority. On December 5, the then Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain was transferred to the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology.

On June 29, 2012, the World Bank cancelled the loan agreement with SNC-Lavalin, which had participated in the tender as a consulting firm for the bridge, alleging corruption of Bangladeshi officials. Later, other donor agencies also cancelled his promised loan agreement. On July 4, 2012, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina spoke in Parliament about the construction of the Padma Bridge with her funds and on July 7, she presented the plan to build the Padma Bridge with her funds. On July 9, 2012, the cabinet implemented the Padma Bridge with its funds. Due to World Bank conditions, the then Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain was removed from the cabinet on July 23, and Secretary Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan was made OSD on July 24. At the government's request, the World Bank agreed to rejoin the project on September 20 but refused to finance it until the investigation was completed. On December 16, 2012, the ACC filed a case against seven people, including former secretary of the bridge department Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, who was the main accused. On December 26, the ACC arrested and remanded Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan from the Shahbagh area of the capital. Two more were arrested. On January 17, 2013, the government suspended Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan. He was released on bail on February 5, 2013.

On January 31, 2013, the World Bridge on the Padma Bridge Jank money will no longer be taken – the government announced such a decision. On June 26, 2013, the tender was called again.

On June 17, 2014, the bridge department agreed with China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group to construct the Padma multipurpose bridge. On September 17, 2014, the ACC said there was no corruption in Padma Bridge. The Padma Bridge corruption case ended on October 26. On November 26, 2014, the construction of the central Padma Bridge began. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the construction work on December 12, 2015.

Design and action planning[edit | edit source]

The entire design of the Padma Multipurpose Bridge was formed by a team of international and national consultants led by ECOM. An international panel of experts was formed on the Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge Project, Bangladesh's first major bridge project. Professor Jamilur Reza Chowdhury was appointed chairman of the 11-member expert panel. The panel provides expert advice to project officers, design consultants and development partners on the design and implementation of the bridge.

The Padma Bridge's physical work is divided into five packages: main bridge, river governance, Jajira connecting road and toll plaza, Mawa connecting roads, toll plazas, etc. and Mawa and Jajira service areas. Monsel-Ecom, a design consulting firm engaged in the project, was responsible for preparing the pre-qualification rate documents for the recruitment of physical works contractors, evaluating the tender documents after inviting tenders, and assisting the tender committee in all related works. An international panel of experts oversees the work of the design consulting firm. A tender evaluation committee was formed for various packages of physical work. The director of the Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project was the chairman of the technical evaluation committee.

Gradual cost increases[edit | edit source]

In 2005, the initial estimate for the construction of the Padma Bridge was Tk 12,000 crore. In the meeting of the executive committee of the National Economic Council, given the construction cost of other comparable bridges in the world, then Prime Minister Khaleda Zia suggested limiting the total construction cost to Tk 10,000 crore.

Ten thousand one hundred sixty-one crores were approved for the final estimate of the Padma Bridge in August 2007 at the ECNEC meeting during the caretaker government.

Subsequently, the estimate was increased at various times. The latest approved estimate is Tk 30,193 crore, which is 20,032 crore more than the original estimate. It is said that the delay in implementation is the main reason for the increase in the project cost.

The construction cost of the 6.15 km long Padma road-rail bridge has increased from $1.48 billion to $3.56 billion in US dollars in eleven years. China's 6.4km-long Wufensang Yangtze Road-Rail Bridge opened in December 2020. Comparable to the Padma Bridge, this bridge took four years to build and cost $1.05 billion, less than one-third of the Padma Bridge.

Piling problems[edit | edit source]

Initially, the engineers and experts who built the bridge had to find the soil at the bottom of the river Padma. Average soil was not found at the bottom. The problem was seen after the piling work of the bridge started. Engineers tried to build pillars by creating new soil instead of artificial soil in screen grouting at the bottom of the river. In this process, the strength of the soil is increased by sending chemicals to the bottom of the river through holes in the pipes from above. The pillars were built on that ground. In this method, small steel pipes are welded with piles. A type of chemical is sent through the pipe to the soil at the bottom of the river. Under the influence of chemicals, the soil at the bottom becomes hard. At some point, if the soil can carry the pile load, then there is no obstacle to laying the pile.

Controversy and Rumours[edit | edit source]

In July 2019, a rumour spread on Facebook that human heads were needed for the construction of the Padma Bridge. In this, many mentally unstable people were beaten and thrashed in different parts of Bangladesh by thinking that they were kidnappers; Even death occurred. Later, the bridge construction authority sent a notice to the media on July 9, 2019, citing this information as a rumour and baseless. To stop the spread of misleading information, the researchers advised the bridge authorities to disseminate all the details of the bridge's construction to the public.