Padma bridge to be open to traffic in June 2022 as deadline extended further

Construction of the Padma bridge was supposed to have been completed by 30 June this year, but the work was set back due to the coronavirus outbreak. Given the circumstances, the project term has been extended by another two years.

Accordingly, the bridge will be open to traffic by June 2022. The following year will be the defect liability period in which if any defects appear in the bridge, the contractors will fix these at their own expense.

Planning minister MA Mannan, speaking to Prothom Alo about the project, said, “The bridges division told us that work on the project was impeded by the coronavirus outbreak as well as last year’s floods. They proposed that the project term be extended by another two years. We found the proposal justified and have given our approval. This has not increased the expenditure on the bridge.”

This is the fifth time that the Padma bridge project term has been extended. Officials of the bridges division, which is implementing the project, have said that so far 85 per cent of the work on the bridge has progressed. An application had been submitted to the planning ministry to extend the project term by another year to complete the remaining 15 per cent of the work. Another year had been asked for the defect liability period.

Generally speaking, the planning ministry has the authority to extend the time and costs of any project. However, the bridges division has said that the costs will not be increased this time. That means, the project costs will remain Tk 301.93 billion (Tk 30 thousand 193 crore).

After receiving the proposal of the bridges division, a team of the planning ministry’s Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Department (IMED), led by secretary Pradip Ranjan Chakraborty, carried out an inspection at the site of the Padma bridge project. The team recently submitted their report to planning minister MA Mannan.

The IMED report said that work on a 400KV power transmission line of this project is underway. The driving of all 35 piles is complete. This transmission line is being set up to connect the power generated from the coal-fired Payra power plant in Patuakhali with the national grid.

According to the report, work on the Padma bridge project’s Mawa approach road, Jajira approach road and service area (2) is complete. Meanwhile, 80 per cent of the river training is complete. All the 41 spans of the main bridge have been set up. Work is now being carried out on the road and railway slabs, super girders and railway girders. And 2,917 roadway slabs have been made, of which 1,676 have been placed on the bridge, while 2,959 railway slabs have been made, of which 2,266 have been laid on the bridge.

IMED secretary Pradip Ranjan Chakraborty has told Prothom Alo, many of the foreign consultants and Chinese contractors have not been able to join work due to Covid restrictions in their respective countries. Also, the water level of the river Padma increased abnormally due to last year’s excessive and prolonged floods and this impeded construction too. The Mawa construction yard even was endangered by the strong river current. That is why the term of the 6km Padma bridge project has been extended by two years.

The main work on the Padma bridge is being carried out by the Chinese contractors China Major Bridge Engineering Company. River training is being done by another company of China, Sinohydro Corporation. Generally, after any development work is complete, the concerned contractors take liability for its maintenance for a specific time period.

According to international rules, this period is of one year and this applies to the Padma bridge project too. That means if any defects appear in the bridge in the year after it is completed, the contractors will have to fix these at their own expense. This is the defect liability period (DLP). Earlier, there has been a similar one year defect liability period for the bridge over the river Jamuna too.

*This report appeared in the print and online edition of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten for the English edition by Ayesha Kabir.