Consultants say the 6.15km bridge, constructed at a price of practically $4bn, will join the impoverished southwestern area to the capital.
Dhaka, Bangladesh – Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has inaugurated a landmark bridge over the turbulent Padma River after years of delay attributable to allegations of corruption that pressured the World Financial institution to stroll away from the practically $4bn mega challenge, which is able to join Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka to the underdeveloped southwestern area of the nation.
The opening on Saturday of the eponymous Padma Bridge – Bangladesh’s longest bridge thus far which has been dubbed a “image of nationwide pleasure” – marks a momentous event within the South Asian nation’s historical past.
The development of the 6.15km (3.82 miles) bridge started in November 2015 to attach 21 districts of the nation’s southwest with Dhaka through street and rail, thereby slicing journey time significantly.
It normally takes 15 to 22 hours to cowl a distance of 180-300km (111-186 miles) between the southwest districts and Dhaka.
The double-layer metal truss bridge incorporates a four-lane freeway on an higher stage together with a single-track railway on the decrease stage.
With a building value of $3.87bn, this is likely one of the largest mega tasks Bangladesh has ever undertaken and your entire quantity is financed by the Bangladesh authorities.
In 2012, the World Financial institution withdrew from a $1.2bn mortgage settlement for the challenge following allegations of corruption. Following go well with, different donors, together with Asian Growth Financial institution (ADB) and Japan Worldwide Cooperation Company (JICA), additionally pulled out of the challenge.
Hasina, who spearheaded efforts to construct the bridge, famously declared that her authorities would self-fund the challenge.
Her resolution confronted a battery of scepticism from the nation’s economists in addition to political opponents since Bangladesh didn't have any expertise in constructing such mega infrastructure with out monetary assist from multilateral donors.
“Some individuals mentioned we might at all times be beholden to others, however our Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman taught us the significance of self-respect,” Hasina mentioned, addressing a sea of individuals on Saturday.
Sheikh Rahman was Bangladesh’s founding father who led the motion to secede from Pakistan in 1971.
“This Padma Bridge is just not a pile of brick and cement, however a logo of Bangladesh’s pleasure, honour and skill,” she mentioned.
“We now have proven the world that we will.”
An engineering marvel
Terming it as an “engineering marvel”, specialists say the development of the bridge is a superb feat because the Padma is probably the most “treacherous and unpredictable” river after the Amazon River of South America.
China’s state-owned Railway Main Bridge Engineering Group (RMBEG) was tasked to guide the development of the bridge with the assistance of about 1,200 Bangladeshi engineers.
With metal piles being pushed 122 metres (400 toes) deep into the river mattress, Padma Bridge has the document of getting the deepest piling amongst all of the bridges on this planet.
The bridge challenge director, Shafiqul Islam, advised Al Jazeera that the water that flows at Mawa level (one finish of the bridge) each 20 seconds is the same as the overall quantity of water utilized in Dhaka metropolis a day.
“After Amazon, Padma has the strongest present [roughness in water] on this planet. So we needed to go for piling that's the thickest and deepest on this planet,” he mentioned.
Mentioning one other distinctive function of the bridge, Islam mentioned, trendy friction pendulum bearings (FPB) have been used to assist the metal superstructure and the concrete pier basis.
“Such bearings have by no means been used anyplace on this planet earlier than they usually can stand up to a magnitude 9 earthquake,” he mentioned, including that the bridge bearings can maintain greater than 10,000 tonnes, exceeding the restrict of some other construction on this planet.
Islam mentioned as they confronted a plethora of engineering challenges, the price of the challenge rose to nearly thrice the preliminary estimate of $1.2bn.
“Apart from, the devaluation of Bangladeshi foreign money Taka has performed a serious position in elevating the associated fee, as greater than half of the challenge’s expenditure has been paid in overseas foreign money.”
Why a big construction?
Situated some 68km (42 miles) from Dhaka, the Padma Bridge will work as a gateway to the nation’s southwestern area and can considerably scale back journey time between Dhaka and main southeastern districts, together with Khulna, Jessore and Barishal.
It'll additionally slash the space between Dhaka and Bangladesh’s second-largest seaport, Mongla, by 100km (62 miles).
The mighty Padma separates the southwest area from Dhaka and individuals are pressured to journey on ferries or launches that make sluggish journeys. Perishable items transported to Dhaka from southwestern districts by truck typically rot as a result of on the lengthy journey that may generally take 22-24 hours as a result of lengthy tailback in ferry stations.
Based on a examine by the government-run Bridge Division, the Padma Bridge will save a complete of 187,727 hours of ready for ferries per day for two,620 autos. It's estimated that with the opening of the bridge, about 24,000 autos will cross the river daily – a big soar from the present variety of 2,620.
The examine additionally identified that the financial impression of the bridge will assist improve the annual gross home product (GDP) of the southwest area by 2.5 % and the general GDP of the nation by greater than 1.23 %.
Economist Selim Raihan, who performed a examine on the financial impression of the bridge, mentioned its foremost profit is that it'll join southwestern districts – identified for fishing and agriculture – to the financial lifeline of Bangladesh – the Dhaka-Chattogram financial hall.
“As communication and transportation over Padma River had been solely reliant on ferries, a lot industrialisation didn’t happen within the southwestern districts up to now,” he advised Al Jazeera.
“Readymade garment sector – Bangladesh’s most distinguished business and foremost export earner – has remained utterly absent from these districts.”
“I consider, buyers and industrialists will likely be to speculate there that can spark an enormous financial development.”
Post a Comment