Chief_Adviser
Number of posts : 615
Age : 41
City/Town : in ur heart .
Registration date : 2008-06-10
 |  Subject: Longest bridge, over Padma, to start 2011......................  Tue Jan 13, 2009 3:17 pm | |
| Construction of the proposed Padma Bridge, set to be the country's longest, will begin in 2011, said communications minister Syed Abul Hossain on Tuesday.
"We hope the construction work will start in 2011, and this government is determined to finish the same in the next three years," said the minister.
The total cost of the bridge is estimated at around Tk 10,000 crore, he said.
Attending a meeting with bridge authority officials in the morning, the newly appointed minister sounded confident that the Awami League government would start and finish the construction.
"The prime minister has instructed me to finish appointment of a design consultant by this month." Hossain told reporters at Setu Bhaban.
Hossain said his ministry would float a tender for the construction work after the consultant had completed designs of the 5.58 km long bridge which would connect the southwest region with Dhaka.
"The gross domestic product of the southwest will increase by 2 percent if the bridge is constructed," he said.
The bridge over the Padma river, which will connect Mawa in Munshiganj with Jazira in the southwestern district of Madaripur, is also likely to contribute hugely to the functioning of Mongla port in Bagerhat district.
The country's second seaport in the southwest district fails to attract cargo ships owing to poor communications.
The bridge will also have a rail line that will ultimately be part of a proposed trans-Asian rail link, said the minister.
Mushtaq Ahmed, secretary to the Bangladesh Bridge Authority under the ministry of communications, told us that the government was in negotiations with the ADB, World Bank and other donors for finalisation of the designs and other funding. | |
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