Bangabandhu Railway Bridge: Minister optimistic, challenges aplenty

GBNEWS24DESK//

Railways Minister Nurul Islam Sujan has said the construction of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Railway Bridge will be completed within the August 2024 deadline.

The construction may be done even before the deadline if any major natural calamity or global crisis doesn’t occur, the minister said while visiting the construction site yesterday.

He said 1.15km span out of 4.8km has already been installed in eastern part and the work has been going on in full swing.

The Russia-Ukraine war has caused an adverse impact on different railway projects, but this particular scheme is still remains free from the impact and it has not been affected by the US dollar crisis either, he said.

“The way work is going on day and night, we are hopeful of completing the work before the stipulated time,” he said.

However, the ground reality is not so rosyas the progress of the work is quite slow in the western part of the bridge in Sirajganj compared to the eastern part in Tangail.

The work at the eastern part saw 65 percent progress against the western part’s 36 percent till early this month, said sources at Bangladesh Railway.

The project authorities were not able to use Tk 1,151 crore from the allocation it was supposed to receive from the Annual Development Programme (ADP).

In this given situation, it is likely to be very difficult for the authorities to meet the August 2024 deadline, and they may take four to six more months to complete the work, the sources added.

Taken up in 2016, the Tk 16,780.95 crore project is being implemented with a Japanese soft loan (72 percent) and government funds. However, physical work of the project started in August 2020 and it saw 55 percent progress till this month.

The bridge is being constructed 300 metres upstream of the existing Bangabandhu Bridge over the Jamuna.

Once built, the dual-gauge double-track bridge will be the largest dedicated rail bridge in the country. It will improve the capacity of BR in operating more trains between the capital and the western districts of the country. It will also help reduce train delays which are now quite common, officials said.