The world's largest bridge, the Padma Bridge in Bangladesh, was inaugurated.

 

The world's largest bridge💥

Padda Bridge is a multi-purpose road and railway bridge built over the Padda River in Bangladesh. Through this, Shariatpur and Madaripur districts have been connected with the iron ore of Munshiganj. The bridge was inaugurated on June 25, 2022. On this day, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina herself paid a toll on the Mawa side and for the first time officially climbed the Padda Bridge and through it the bridge was opened. The two-tiered steel and concrete truss bridge has a four-lane road at the top and a single rail at the bottom. The main infrastructure is constructed in the Padda-Brahmaputra-Meghna river basin with 42 pillars and 41 spans of 150 m length. The length of the bridge is 8.150 km and the width is 16.10 m.

Construction history Padma Bridge

On September 17, 1997, a proposal was made for the construction of a bridge over the Padda River on the Dhaka-Mawa-Bhanga-Khulna Highway at a cost of Tk 3,843.50 crore to establish a direct link between the capital and the south and south-west of the country. The bridge is 5 km long and 18.10 m wide and is considered to be the longest bridge in the country. Construction was proposed to begin in July 1999 and be completed in June 2004. The proposed amount of Rs 2,893.50 crore was planned to be provided from foreign sources and Rs 750 crore from national sources.

In the 2006-2007 Annual Development Program, the then Government of Bangladesh adopted a plan to build the Padda Multipurpose Bridge.

The World Bank withdrew its pledge in 2008-09 after allegations of corruption by some people involved in project preparation, and other donors followed suit. In this incident, the then Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain was removed from the cabinet and Secretary Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan was sent to jail. The case was later dropped by a Canadian court for lack of evidence. Allegations of corruption were later refuted in court. The project was later funded by the Bangladesh government from its own resources.

Construction of the multi-purpose socio-economic development project 'Padda Multipurpose Bridge' on the Padda River, designed by ECOM, was supposed to start in 2011 and was to be completed in 2013. The original project was planned by the former caretaker government on August 26, 2006. At that time the Padda Bridge project worth Tk 10,171 crore was passed. Later, the Awami League government came and connected the railway and on January 11, 2011 revised the cost of the bridge in the first phase. At that time the cost was estimated at Tk 20,508 crore. The cost of the Padda Bridge was further increased by Tk 8,000 crore. As a result, the total cost of the Padda Bridge stood at Tk 26,793 crore. The Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BASEC) called for pre-qualification tenders for the project in April 2010. According to the first plan, construction of the bridge was scheduled to begin in early 2011 and major works were to be completed by 2013. According to the plan, the project will cover three districts - Munshiganj (Mawa Point / North Par), Shariatpur. And Madaripur (Janjira / South bank). The total land required and acquired for this is 917 hectares.