Bangladesh Featured ‘A dream come true for 170 mn people of Bangladesh’: PM Hasina inaugurates ‘Padma Bridge’

Bengal71

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Any tangible plan for another bridge around Chandpur?

Government mentioned there is plan for a 2nd Padma bridge. The location hasn't been selected as yet. But Chandpur location should be difficult, may as well be impossible. In that area Padma and Meghna rivers merge and the depth is around 300 meters.
 

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Any tangible plan for another bridge around Chandpur?

1656242794827.png
 

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In the first eight hours of opening Padma Bridge to the public, the bridge authority collected Tk82.19 lakh toll from 6am to 2pm.

In the meantime, 15,200 vehicles crossed the bridge Sunday (26 June).

Bangladesh Bridges Authority (BBA) Superintendent Engineer Abul Hossain said the tolls were accumulated from both entry points.

Hundreds of vehicles crossed the Padma Bridge which opened for public use on Sunday morning, a day after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated it.

Long queues of buses, trucks, cars, motorcycles, and ambulances were seen waiting in hundreds on the Dhaka-Mawa Expressway till the gates of the bridge opened at 6am.

People started thronging the Mawa point of the bridge yesterday night to cross the bridge at first chance.

However, the situation improved significantly as the day progressed and no tailbacks were reported from the two ends of the bridge since 12pm.


Thirty-five cargo trucks have reached Dhaka from Bhomra land port in Satkhira in just five and a half hours crossing Padma Bridge.

Traders were delighted to see the travel time cut short Sunday (26 June) for the newly inaugurated Padma Bridge. Earlier, the trucks had to travel for 7-10 hours to reach Dhaka through Paturia ferry ghat.

Maksud Alam Khan, general secretary of the Bhomra C&F Agents Association, said the cargo trucks left the port for the capital at different times from morning.

"These trucks contain raw materials of fruits, dried chillies, stones, ceramic and cosmetics. The trucks reached the capital in five and a half hours after leaving Bhomra. Our suffering has ended for Padma Bridge," he told The Business Standard.

Maksud Alam also said Most of the products such as wheat, husk and maize imported from India are distributed in nearby Kushtia, Meherpur and Jhenaidah.

"Very few trucks used to go to the capital. This is because there is no scope to import all the goods as there is no customs house in Bhomra port. Although the import of 57 products is allowed, only 30-35 products are imported," he said.

He also noted that the Bhomra land port customs house is scheduled to open next December hoping imports to increase after its launch.

 

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Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader on Monday said that a feasibility study has been conducted to construct the second Padma Bridge at the Paturia-Daulatdia end under the bridge authority.

He also said that the fund for the construction of the second Padma Bridge will be raised from the toll collected from vehicles travelling on the Padma Bridge by 2057.

"Necessary steps will be taken for the construction of the second Padma Bridge if we get instructions later," he added.

The minister disclosed the information on Monday at the Parliament while replying to a query from the ruling party MP of the reserved women's seat Momota Hena Lovely.

The minister also said that the Bangladesh Bridge Authority will repay the entire government loan in 140 quarterly instalments over the next 35 years.

Replying to another query by Fakhrul Imam, Quader said the government has been working with various regional and sub-regional forums for a long time to establish road connectivity with neighbouring countries.

 

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Internet users in Dhaka are set to get faster bandwidth thanks to Padma Bridge as the Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL) has laid fibre-optic cables on its lower deck to reduce the time taken for data to travel between the capital and submarine cable landing station in Kuakata.

Previously, Nationwide Telecommunication Transmission Network (NTTN) companies, which are end-to-end infrastructure providers that build fibre-optic networks, had to laid about 605 kilometres (km) of fibre-optic cables to connect Dhaka with the country's second submarine cable.

But now, the distance is only 295 km, according to BTCL Managing Director Md Rafiqul Matin.

The state-run company laid the fibre-optic cable on the lower deck of Padma Bridge, which houses a rail line, gas transmission pipeline and power transmission lines as well, ahead of its inauguration on June 25.

As such, the latency of data transfers between Dhaka and Singapore will fall to 43 milliseconds from 48 milliseconds at present as a result of the new network, according to Telecom Minister Mustafa Jabbar.

"So, customers will get faster speed."

Jabbar went on to say the resulting reduction in infrastructure maintenance costs will also ultimately benefit end users.

"We kept eight ducts with 63-millimeter diameters for different utility connections, including fibre-optic cables, along the Padma Bridge rail line," said Md Kamruzzaman, deputy director (technical) of the Padma Multipurpose Bridge project.

Dhaka is currently connected with the second submarine cable via Madaripur, Faridpur, Magura, Kushtia, Pabna, Sirajganj, Tangail and Gazipur.

But with the completion of Padma Bridge, the data transmission can take place through the bridge via Kuakata and Madaripur to Dhaka.

As of this March, the state-run Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Ltd (BSCCL) supplied a total of 1,400 Gbps through the country's second undersea cable, South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 5 (SEA-ME-WE 5), which lands in Kuakata.

The connection of the second undersea cable with Bangladesh was established in 2017. According to BTCL Managing Director Matin, they receive 250Gbps of bandwidth from the second submarine cable while the BSCCL supplies the rest to the private NTTNs.

However, private NTTNs are now demanding they be allowed to lay their own fibre-optic cables on the bridge.

Sumon Ahmed Sabir, chief technology officer at Fiber@Home, said if private NTTNs get the permission to lay their cables on Padma Bridge, a large number of internet users will get faster internet speed.

"We have already sought permission in this regard and are now waiting for approval," he added.

Regarding the demand of private NTTNs, the telecom minister said the decision is up to the bridge authority.

Internet usage surged to 3,440 Gbps in March this year, up from 1,000 Gbps before the pandemic, according to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission.

About 650 Gbps is supplied by the BSCCL through the South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 4 (SEA-ME-WE 4) consortium, the first undersea cable with which Bangladesh was connected in 2006.

The BSCCL is set to receive 13,200 Gbps from the third submarine cable, SEA-ME-WE 6, in 2025.

Beginning construction in November 2014 and opening on June 26 this year, the 6.15 km steel truss bridge will connect 21 districts in the southwestern region to the rest of Bangladesh.

Built at a cost of nearly Tk 30,200 crore, the bridge is expected to spur the country's economic growth through increased connectivity and economic activities.

 

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