Along the six new paths from Dhaka to Mawa in Munshigan District, signs with photos of Sheikh Hasina congratulated him and the Bangladesh people at “Amader Swapner Padda Setu” -Jenjbbbbkan our dreams throughout Padma.
These signs are sponsored by local leaders of the Awami League who are in power and compete with each other to praise and gratitude to leaders – but they always refer to “dreams”.
Twenty-one years after the prime minister, in the last days of the previous term of office, putting the foundation stone in the Mawa, one decade after the World Bank canceled $ 1.2 billion by saying it “it could, and it should, and would not turn into blind Mata to proof of corruption “in this project, and seven years after Bangladesh began to be built with its own money, the bridge of the Padma Multipurpose Road travel was ready to be inaugurated on Saturday.
The Padma Bridge is the largest and most challenging infrastructure asset ever made in Bangladesh. By joining the southwest – home for 30 million people – with the capital across the mighty river that divides the whole country, the bridge is expected to provide an urgency that has never happened before for communication, trade and economy Bangladesh as a whole.
The government estimates that GDP increases by 1.23 percent – and Southwest Regional GDP by 2.3 percent – when the bridge begins to provide a return.
This will dramatically cut the road distance between Dhaka and cities in the west such as Khulna, Jessore, and Barisal. And once the railroad track on the bridge was opened-maybe in March 2024-Dhaka could come within three and a half hours of Kolkata, potentially revolutionizing trade and communication with India.
But until now, for most Bangladesh people, the bridge is $ 3.6 billion, more than 6 km above the expanse of spinning water that is so large that it can become the sea itself, above all the objects of national pride that From a confident country line up to the victory destiny that is believed to be in its reach.
The bridge symbolizes “Bangladesh National Determination”, and with its inauguration, the country “will change the decisive angle in its economic story, which has opposed the bleak and doom predictions from neoliberal skeptics and early right wing”, said Dr. Dr. Ashikur Rahman, Senior Economist at the Policy Research Institute in Dhaka.
By providing road and train relations between southwest that are relatively less developed in the country and the more developed east, the bridge will lead to greater regional market integration, said Rahman. The Khulna and Barisal Division is expected to see the impact of economic reduction and poverty most significantly as a result, he said.
The bridge will cut the distance from the port of Mongla (in Khulna) to Dhaka more than 100 km to only 170 km, “Rahman said. “24,000 vehicles will average every day in 2024, and 67,000 in 2050 … According to ADB and other independent estimates, the bridge is likely to increase our GDP growth by at least 1%,” he said.
Also, the success of completion of the project after the World Bank chose to throw it away from Bangladesh officials and the SNC-Lavalin executive collapsed in the Canadian Court in 2017-having brought the invaluable experience in pregnancy, financing, and implementing the mega scale project, said the word Rahman.
Economist Dr. M Masrur Reaz, Chair of the Bangladesh Public Policy Policy Policy Exchange, is too underlined in “the ability that develops from our country which is proud in developing and implementing enormous and complex infrastructure projects … which will add to its reputation in international negotiations involving business which involves businesses involving international business, development, and project finances “.
With “targeted supporting economic planning”, this bridge will “help develop new manufacturing, agribusiness, services and logistics businesses that are expected to provide benefits of up to $ 25 billion for 30 years”, said Reaz.
This will help encourage Bangladesh to be closer to the upper middle income, and after that the country is highly income in 2041, “he said.
Dr. Atiur Rahman, who was the Governor of Bank Bangladesh from 2009 to 2016, said the central bank was established with the government when the World Bank came out of the project, and convinced the convenience of regulations to the banking sector to provide the necessary foreign exchange.
The designated bank will use foreign currencies from their own funds, buy from the market, and get an additional amount from the central bank. Bank Bangladesh is ready to give any amount of its reserves, which then grows substantially. He also agreed to ease regulatory requirements such as allowing banks to provide comfort letters to international and national consultants for imports of machines, materials, etc., “The former governor told Indian Express.
The central bank also started a campaign to get more money from abroad … Money sending increased from $ 9 billion to $ 15 billion between 2009 and 2015. Reserves also increased from $ 7 billion to $ 30 billion during this period, ” said Dr. Rahman.
The Padma Bridge has been built by China Major Bridge Engineering Company, a subsidiary of the China Railway Group, which, Bangladesh officials repeatedly underlined, got a contract in May 2014 only because it presented the lowest offer of $ 1.55 billion. The work began at the end of November that year.
AHAMED AHASAN ULLAH MAJUMDER, an engineer with the Bangladesh bridge authority who has worked on the bridge since 2016, talks about the challenges of project techniques. The Ganga-Padma-Brahmaputra system carries one of the largest volumes of water in the world, the sand bank in the river that is paired continues to increase, fall, and move, and strong underwater currents present complex problems for construction.
The main bridge is 6.15 km – 9.83 km in length as a whole, including the road bridge and rails at two ends – and a width of 21.65 m. High enough for the biggest ship to be passed under it, and has 42 docks, 40 of them are in the river and two are the “transition” docks of completely different designs, Majumder said.
The longest pile of bridge has been pushed to a depth of 122 meters – a record according to the government. At the top deck there is a four -lane highway and in the lower deck, a double railroad track.
After June 25, it might take 10 minutes to cross Padma,” Majumder said. “Uneven … the intersection of the ferry itself takes an hour now, and adds to wait for the ship or the time spent trapped in a growing grown at both ends, the trip can easily take two and a half or three hours,” he said.
The loss of time at the river intersection is “kalpanaheen” (outside of imagination), said Mohammad Shiblu Hawladar from the Pirojpur district in the Barisal Division, who has been riding a taxi throughout Bangladesh for the past 19 years.
My house is almost not 170 km from Dhaka, but people think it is really far away … Chittagong is around 235 km, but going there does not involve crossing Padma, and because it is considered closer to Dhaka,” he said.
My country must have difficulty since we won our independence, and the absence of the road and railroad tracks have increased the suffering of the poor … here in this ghat, women, children and parents spend the whole night waiting to cross the river; Trucks that are loaded with goods that are easily damaged traffic jams without time limits … This bridge is Aashaar Aalo (New Harapan Light) Note for everyone, “Shiblu said.
I was in the past trying to get to my house and family by Chaand Raat (the night before Eid al -Fitr) but failed to cross the river on time,” he said. “God willing, which will never happen again. This bridge allows me to dream. “