Shawdesh desk:

Padma Bridge and its rail link on the Bhanga-Mawa section are not going to open to the public on the same day as rail line installation on the bride has not yet started because of ongoing gas pipeline work.

The government has a plan to open the Padma Bridge by June this year. There was also a plan to open the Bhanga-Mawa portion of the Padma rail link project simultaneously with the bridge.

But it is not likely to happen, the rail link project officials have hinted, saying that the bridges division will inform them about the time of starting the rail line installation work on the bridge at the end of April.

“Currently, fitting and fixing of the gas pipeline is going alongside the work of walkway for bridge management people. The green signal for installing the rail line will only come once the work is done,” Padma rail link project director Afzal Hossain said.

“We’ve already discussed the issue with bridges division and the division has informed us that they would give a go-ahead to the rail line installation work after April,” he added.

He said they will be able to talk about when rail line work will start after getting the approval. The official also informed that they have a plan to finish the work by December this year.

Railway officials are also concerned with the installation of a stone-less rail line on the bridge after its launch as controlling of baseline survey will be tough.

They said the rail line installation with maintaining cent percent alignment won’t be possible because of vibration created by speedy vehicles.

In view of this, they said they would suggest the concerned authorities to limit vehicles’ speed to one-third to avoid such complexity in rail line work.

The government is constructing a 172km rail line from Dhaka to Jashore through the double-deck Padma multipurpose bridge spending Tk 392.47 billion to establish a direct rail link between the capital and south and southwestern districts to reap the full benefit of the bridge.

The work of the Padma rail link project was approved in May 2016 and the whole project, being implemented in three phases, is expected to be complete by 2024.

The project’s first phase stretches from Dhaka to Mawa, the second phase from Mawa to Bhanga, Faridpur and the third phase from Bhanga to Jashore.

Of these phases, the government stepped up work in the 42km section of the second phase with a hope to open it to rail traffic on the same day of Padma bridge commissioning.

But the chance for this is very thin given the present context. Railways officials said the initiative for starting the rail line laying work should have been taken at least six months ago for executing the government plan.

While paying a visit to the project site recently, Railways Minister Nurul Islam also expressed his doubt over the simultaneous opening of two mega projects.

Despite approval in May 2016, the project’s physical work commenced only in July 2018, mainly due to the delay in signing the loan contract with China Exim Bank.

In the meantime, the project cost has already climbed from Tk 349.89 billion to Tk 392.47 billion and the deadline was extended up to 2024. The fast-track project also suffered setbacks twice due to problems in the design of viaducts and the pandemic.