About 71 percent construction work of the Padma Bridge has been completed so far along with 59 percent works on river training. A report made public by the Road Transport and Bridges Ministry revealed this information. The report was presented in the Parliamentary Committee’s meeting on Sunday. The committee members decided to inspect the progress of the bridge construction.
Information submitted to the committee shows that the construction of the 9.83 kilometer long Padma Bridge is approximately Tk 30,193 crore. Until June this year, a total of 256 piles out of 262 and 29 peer columns out of 42 have been constructed. Last June 30, through erecting the 14th span of the bridge 2.1 kilometer portion of the bridge is now visible to the public.
The report also says that the construction of the connecting roads of Janjira and Mawa and the establishment of Service Area-2 have been completed by June this year. The overall physical work progress of the project has been mentioned at 71 percent. The report also shows that 1 lakh 69 thousand 957 trees have been planted on both banks of Padma Bridge. At the same time, the work of establishing a museum in the area is in progress. A total of 2,023 samples have been collected for the museum.
The report also mentions that taka 641 crore 94 lakh has been distributed among the victims of the construction process as additional compensation. At the same time, 2,690 plots built in the rehabilitation area have been handed over to the affected families out of which 697 landless families have been provided plots free of cost.
Committee President Ekabbar Hossain presided over the meeting of the committee members. Road Transport and Bridge Minister Obaidul Quader, Enamul Haque, Md Hasibur Rahman Swapan, Abu Zahir, Rezwan Ahmad Tawfiq, Chalim Uddin Tarafdar, Sheikh Salahuddin, Syed Abu Hossain and Rabeya Alim also took part in the meeting.