Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader said on Wednesday the plying of vehicles will begin on the Padma Bridge by June 2022.

“After completion of the construction works of the Padma Bridge project, the bridge will be opened for vehicular movement by June 2022,” he told a view-exchange meeting with officials of Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) through videoconferencing from his official residence.

Quader, also the Awami League General Secretary, said rumours are being spread in social media over the time extension of the Padma Bridge project.

The ongoing construction work of the project will be completed by June 2022 and then the bridge will be opened for vehicular movement, he said.

If the bridge needs repairing, the timeframe will increase to June 2023 only for the construction firms, but physical works of the bridge project must be completed by June 2022, the road transport and bridges minister said.

“I hope that the physical works of the Padma Bridge would be completed by June 2022,” he added.

Mentioning that there is no correlation between the extension of timeframe and the physical work of the bridge project, he said there is a liability period in a mega project to make the construction firms accountable so that the firms can complete necessary works later.

Asking the authorities concerned to take harsher steps to make the BRTC profitable, Quader said the public entity must get out of the circle of irregularity and continues its works to minimise losses the BRTC incurs every year.

About the COVID-19 inoculation campaign, he said the common people are willingly taking the vaccines through registration, rejecting all propaganda and rumours over the Covid-19 vaccines.