Country’s longest railway bridge inaugurated on Jamuna River

The longest railway bridge of the country was inaugurated on Jamuna River as a passenger train, starting from the eastern side, crossed the bridge in just three minutes and reached Soydabad in Sirajganj Tuesday morning.

The inaugural train started the journey from Ibrahimabad station at 12:06 pm, reached the east side of the bridge at 12:12 pm. It took only three minutes and 15 seconds to cross the bridge. The train reached Soydabad station in Sirajganj at 12:21 pm.

Railway secretary Fahimul Islam was the chief guest at the inauguration event at Ibrahimabad station while Japan ambassador to Bangladesh Saida Shinichi and JICA’s South Asia department director general Ito Teruyuki were the special guests at the event.

Jamuna railway bridge construction project Al Fattah Md Masudur Rahman gave the welcome speech and Bangladesh Railway director general Md Afzal Hossain, who chaired the event, made the closing remarks.

The guests inaugurated the bridge by pulling a tumbler lever.

The bridge has dual gauge double tracks. Operation of the train on the bridge started on 12 February.

Jamuna rail bridge project director Al Fattah Md Masudur Rahman told Prothom Alo that the distance between the stations at two ends of  the bridge is 13 kms. It would not take more than seven minutes to cross the bridge.

He further said earlier a train used to take 20-25 minutes to cross Jamuna bridge. But trains will take less time to cross the bridge now while the number of trains will also increase.

Trains are not using the old Jamuna bridge since the construction of the new bridge.

The 4.8 km bridge construction project was taken in December 2016. The initially estimated cost was just over Tk 97.34 billion and the work was scheduled to complete in 2023. Later the revised cost stood at Tk 167.8 billion and the tenure was extended to 2025.

The project’s initial name was Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Railway Bridge. But the name was changed to Jamuna Railway Bridge after the interim government took power.

Forty nine spans of the bridge have been constructed on 50 pillars. A train could operate at 120 kmh. A railway source, however, said they have set a speed limit of 100 kmh. But the trains will operate at lower speed.

Inauguration of this rail bridge has opened a new horizon of communications with the northern districts of the country, Bangladesh Railway’s Paksey division commerce officer Goutam Kumar Kundu told Prothom Alo.