“None can subdue us anymore.” This everlasting truth of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s eloquent warning of the historic speech of 7 March 1971 also the father of the nation, proved to be true today after 51 long years by his able daughter visionary fearless defiant “Jana Netri” and “Mother of Humanity” Sheikh Hasina, elected Prime Minister of Bangladesh for the fourth time, by building and successfully implementing the Padma Multipurpose Bridge.
The communication infrastructure is one of the largest bridges in the world on the river Padma, the second heaviest and fastest tidal river in the world, next to the Amazon river, by overcoming hundreds of obstacles and thwarting all conspiracies.
What is going to happen in reality in Bangladesh today may be possible only in the magic game of Aladdin’s Wonder Lamp or legendary magician Protul Chandra Sorcar’s magic wand. Instead, the magic wand is in the hand of Sheikh Hasina, and she is scheduledto inaugurate the bridge on 25 June 2022amid a grand festivity and joy. The dream is coming into reality after the completion of the Padma Bridge with funds generated by the government.
Today, the success of the construction of this Padma Bridge is a reality. The dream come true was only possible for Sheikh Hasina’sinitiative, her government, and the moral support of the valiant people of Bangladesh. The success is being shared by the people of Bangladesh.
A massive connectivity project will dramatically change the transportation scenario of a South Asian country. A highway bridge with a “one level low” railway line will cross the Padma River and it is hoped that this will not only improve the flow of vehicles but also boost the economy of the country.
The construction of this Padma Bridge is indeed a great victory for the people of Bangladesh and stands tall in the world.
Bangladesh has proved that such mega infrastructure could be built, despite the cancellation of donor allocation from the world’s largest international financial institution, the World Bank, Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA), Asian Development Bank (ADB), and Islamic Development Bank (IDB) without borrowing money from any other sources.
Sheikh Hasina is successfulin completinga gigantic technical project on her strength. That is why Hasina and the people of Bangladesh have brightened the image of a Bangalee nation in the world and gave a message thatBangladesh can accept any challenge.
The Padma Bridge has indeed earned self-esteem for Bangladesh. It is a bridge of hope for the Bangalees. This is the bridge of hope for the Bangalees which brings with it trust, pride and confidence. This bridge is an icon of Bangladesh’s dignified development achievement. This mammoth bridge project has loudly stated that the Bangalees are capable of undertaking a mega infrastructure – a country once described by US Secretary for State Department Henry Kissinger as a “bottomless basket case”.
Today, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib’s dream of establishing “Sonar Bangla” (Golden Bengal) was a success by his worthy daughter Sheikh Hasina, and the Government of Bangladesh under her commendable leadership.
Prime Minister and her government faced a series of national and international conspiracies when she undertook the plan to build the Padma Bridge. She facedthe lies and false information about the construction of the Padma Bridge.
A few high-ranking government bureaucrats had been suedin a Canadian court for allegedcorruption after citing evidence from a personal diary. Later on the World Bank, JICA, ADB, and IDB cancelled the supposedly approved loan for the Padma Bridge.
The conspiracy to cancel the fund for the construction of the mega project was backed by well-known Bangladeshi politicians, journalists, civil society figures, and a Nobel laureate who led the conspiracy to cancel the Padma Bridge loan against the government to avenge the loss of the positionasManaging Director of Grameen Bank, which he founded. Former Secretary of US State Department Hillary Clinton’s influence was also used. TheClinton Foundation received a donationand thus the loan for the Padma Bridge was cancelled, and Hillary influenced the President of the World Bank to cancel the budget.
The Padma Bridge project is a top priority mega-project in Bangladesh. Connectivity of the Asian Highway and Trans-Asian Railway will be established through Padma Bridge. The Padma Bridge will provide national, regional, and international connectivity through our National Road Corridor.
When the Padma Bridge is commissioned, the country’s national GDP (gross domestic product) will increase by another 1.26% and the south-western regional GDP will grow by 2.3%.
The Padma Bridge construction was the most challenging project in the world. The Bangladesh authority has built the bridge over the second largest river in the world. Every second, about 140,000 cubic metres of water flow through the project area. Twenty seconds of flow will suffice to meet the one-day drinking water demand for an estimated 20 million residentsof Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka.
The engineers have also considered the dangers of earthquakes and river bank erosion. So, for this project, the second most powerful pile hammer in the world was mobilised for the construction.The project is the main communication bridge in Bangladesh.
The biggest challenge was the huge width of the river. Not surprisingly, the Padma Bridge will be the longest in South Asia.
• The bridge is 6.15 km long;
• River training work is 14 km in length;
• Zanjira approach road and selected bridge end facility are 10.5 km in length;
• Mawa approach road and selected bridge end facility are 1.5 km in length;
• Land acquisition was more than 1408.54 hectares.
The cost of the financing project is estimated at US$ 3 billion. The Padma Multipurpose Bridge (PMB) project was designed to finance donors such as the World Bank, JICA, ADB, and IDB. As the project was in progress, the World Bank suddenly backed out from its commitment and other donors followed suit. The project was later funded from the own resources of the Government of Bangladesh.
The work is being carried out by state-owned China Major Bridge Engineering Corporation (MBEC) for the 6.15 km long two-tiered Padma Multipurpose Bridge. The bridge has a total of 42 pillars. There are six piles under each one. Steel spans are placed on the pillars. The bridge has a total of 41 spans.
The Padma Bridge will immensely benefit the common people in our economic society. Ithas created an opportunity for interaction with other regions, it will save people’s time and money. People will be able to communicate easily with their peers. This will save their valuable time crossing the mighty Padma River.
From a business perspective, for industrial and agricultural products the digital market will widen the opportunity for the producers and consumers. Many products are mainly transported to Dhaka from different regions of the country. A bridge was needed to swiftly transport perishable and non-perishable products to and from Dhaka to the rural production hubs. It will also widen people’s interpersonal relationships. This bridge will of course immeasurably contribute to economic, social, and environmental development.
Through cross-river transport facilities, the Padma Bridge is expected to lead to greater integration of regional markets into Bangladesh’s national economy. Based on the suitability of capturing the primary and secondary economic effects of the construction project, three different types of economy-wide models have been used in addition to the traditional traffic model to capture the total and economic impact of the Padma Bridge.
The landscape of Bangladesh, a neighbour of India, is usually characterized by wide plains cut by innumerable rivers. The Padma River, a continuation of the Indian Gangetic plains is larger than the Brahmaputra River network from the northeastwhich divides the country into three regions. The name the Padma today primarily refers to the part that begins in the middle of the country where the Ganges and Brahmaputra meet and ends in the south where it opens into the yawning Bay of Bengal.
The most economically developed areas are the densely populated centre around the two main cities of Dhaka in the middle of the country and Chattagram (Chittagong) in the southeast, where some other areas lagbehind.
Economic development is often hampered by the fact that only a few bridges connect these parts of the country. So far there have been only two bridges over the Padma River in western Bangladesh. The first is the Harding Railway Bridge, built in the early 20th century duringthe British colonial era. The Lalon-Shah Bridge was built in 2004 for automobile traffic.Further down, there was never a bridge.
In many places, the only way to cross the wide river was by crossing the river in an “adventurous” state by ships, ferries, engine-operated boats as well as hand and sail-pulled or pushed boats. Accidents have often occurred in the past due to the technically inadequate condition of the ferries and boats.
However, most of the passenger and freight transport between the capital Dhaka and the southwestern part of the country is carried by ferries. In addition, Bangladesh – a relatively small land country – has an exceptionally high number of regional airports due to inadequate road and rail infrastructure and a lack of bridges.
Officially named the “Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project (PMBP)”, is an improvement and expected to change the lives of 30 million people in the south and south-west region, according to studies.
The new road and rail transport link, this bridge in the south of Dhaka will enable transportation of goods from Chattagramport in the south-east and Mongla port in the south-west at a much lower cost. The distance from the capital Dhaka to almost all major destinations in the southwest of the country will be reduced to 100 kilometres or more, where travel time will be reduced by 3 hours per trip. Many manufacturers and service providers will have access to the new sales destinations for the new crossings.
The construction of a bridge at the bottom of the Padma has been under consideration for a long time. It quickly became clear that this would be the largest infrastructure project in the history of the country.
In the past, it seemed impossible to realise such a project due to the large size of the many kilometres wide river which has changed its course many times in the past. The delta of the river is constantly flowing – sand banks, currents, arrow erosion, and side branches may change or move every few years.
The success of other major bridge projects (Bangabandhu [Jamuna] Bridge in 1998, Lalon-Shah Bridge in 2004) could serve as an incentive for multiple feasibility studies starting in 2000 in a more upstream narrow space.
The plan has finally changed based on concrete and a cable-stayed bridge with a span of more than 180 meters and a higher traffic forecast. It was decided to build a steel girder bridge with a single rail line on the lower deck and a four-lane road on the upper deck. The bridge has 42 huge concrete pillars, 4-lane traffic, and a “three-rail track”.
The official journey of the bridge construction started towards the end of 2015. Construction had started earlier. The road connections to the bridge from both sides are 720 meters to 875 meters long. The railway ramps are 2.36 km and 2.96 km long and connect to a bridge with 41 steel girders. The span of the individual components is 150 meters, and each of them weighs 3,376 tons. These steel girders were placed by special ships on 42 huge concrete pillars. The concrete pillars rest on a total of 262 steel pillars. They are about three meters in diameter, filled with concrete, and go deep into the ground at the bottom of the river. The railway section is designed as a single three-rail track so that it can be travelled by wide gauge and metric gauge trains used in Bangladesh.
Sheikh Hasina bravely confronted all the conspiracies and overwhelmed all obstacles, and broke the teeth of all destructive activities. She surprised the world by showing that Bangladesh can also realise its dream under democratic and progressive leadership.
Dr Mohsin Ali, is a liberation war veteran. He lives in New York, United States. Email: drmohsinali@yahoo.com
