The much awaited rail connection with the Padma Bridge has been completed. Meanwhile, the rest of the construction work is continuing as per the schedule.
Railway Minister Nurul Islam Sujan made this announcement while inspecting the rail line construction work progress at the Mawa end on Tuesday.
After laying the segmental girder of Viaduct-2 of the rail link project, he said, “Work is progressing at a fast pace even amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Till now 41 percent of the total work has progressed. The rest of the work will be completed on time.”
The Minister said that, “Construction work of four stations at Bhanga, Shibchar, Jajira and Mawa is underway. There will be 172 km railway line from Dhaka to Jessore. The construction of the project is scheduled to end in June 2024”.
As an important project under the “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI) and the biggest infrastructure project under construction of the Bangladesh government, the project is funded by preferential loans of Exim Bank of China, which is also the largest single contract amount financed by Two Preferential Loan Program of the Chinese government in the recent years.
The governments of both China and Bangladesh have given enormous support and attention to it, and the Bangladesh government included it in the top ten first-track projects. The Contractor Representative Wang Kun said, “As an eternal pioneer, CREC has been through many hardships including a one-and-a-half-year delay caused due to land acquisition, design approval and delayed measurement and payment in the initial stage of the project, combined with the pandemic and 70-year flood in 2020.”
“From the piling works to the full implementation of box girder erection work since April 30, 2020, the effective time for construction of the whole viaduct is only one and a half years,” he said.
“Within a few weeks, except for the span which is affected by the PMBP, the last span of Viaduct-3 will also be completed. CREC has created a new Chinese speed record for the construction of the bridge in Bangladesh. In June, the works prior to the track-laying of the Mawa-Bhanga section of PBRLP will be almost completed, and the track-laying works are about to start. If this goal can be achieved, it means within an effective working period of 2.5 years, a new rail line is built and opened to traffic. This will be a historic achievement and is seldom seen all over the world except in China,” Kun said.
Director General of Bangladesh Railway Engineer D N Mazumber, Additional Secretary of Bangladesh Railway and Project Director of PBRLP Engineer Golam Fakhruddin A Chowdhury, the Chief Coordinating Officer (CCO) of the international consultant consortium, Major General Zahid, among others, witnessed the steady placement of the last span.
