Much hyped Padma Bridge is a multipurpose 6.15 km long road-rail bridge across the Padma River which is being constructed in Bangladesh. When completed, it will be the largest bridge in Bangladesh and the first fixed river crossing connecting south-western part and remaining part of the country. This challenging construction as well as the largest ever mega-project in the history of Bangladesh is going to reveal a new lifeline of development boosting in the strength of our economy.
The bridge will contribute significantly towards facilitating the social, economic and industrial development of this relatively underdeveloped region with a population of over 30 million. The area of influence of the direct benefit of the project is about 44,000 square-km or 29% of the total area of Bangladesh.
 |
| Padma Bridge: Facts at a Glance (Click on the image to enlarge) |
The under-construction Padma Bridge, due to be opened to traffic by the end of 2018 to serve as gateway between the capital city Dhaka and 21 South-Western districts, is changing people's mindset with hopes for rapid and vast socio-economic developments. The bridge has provisions for rail, gas, electric line and fiber optic cable for future expansion.
Economists predict once the bridge becomes operational, it is expected to push growth of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) up by 1.2 per-cent, pushing it over 7% and thus, enabling it to emerge as a upper middle-income country by World Bank standards by 2030 and create employment opportunities for 50 million people.
The bridge lies on the Dhaka- Kolkata(India) link and will form an integral part of the Asian highway and Euro-Asian railway network system. The benefit-cost ratio of Padma Bridge is very high as the reduced communication time will greatly boost the development of agriculture and industry in this area. It will also connect our second most important part of Mongla industrial zone in Khulna.
Construction of Padma Bridge is expected to generate welfare to the people of Bangladesh in general and the people of South West in particular. The benefits are expected to arise from the greater integration of regional markets within the Bangladeshi national economy. Moreover, given the interdependence of economic activities, the direct impacts of the Padma Bridge on individual sectors and factor markets are likely to induce a chain of changes in the rest of the sectors of the economy.
Undoubtedly, Padma Bridge is going to be one of the vital strengths to our flourishing economy chasing double digit economic growth.
Sources:
1. The Daily Star
1. The Daily Star
2. Wikipedia
3. BBC
