[🇧🇩] Sea Ports/Air Ports/River Ports/Bridges/Mega Projects

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G Bangladesh Defense
[🇧🇩] Sea Ports/Air Ports/River Ports/Bridges/Mega Projects
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Country’s longest railway bridge inaugurated on Jamuna River
Staff Correspondent
Tangail
Updated: 18 Mar 2025, 14: 55

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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. Prothom Alo

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.​
 

Payra Port nothing but a 'poisonous boil' for economy: Adviser Wahiduddin
UNB
Dhaka
Published: 23 Mar 2025, 19: 16

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Wahiduddin MahmudFile photo​


Planning adviser Wahiduddin Mahmud on Sunday criticised the Payra Sea Port project as a ‘poisonous boil for the country’s economy'.

“This sort of project that reaches at the middle of it is a poisonous boil for the economy,” he said while briefing reporters about the outcome of the weekly ECNEC meeting held at the NEC conference room with chief adviser Muhammad Yunus in the chair.

He lamented that at the initial stage of this project no one was there to point out that there is no possibility to set up a river port here without yearly dredging, whereas the seaport is a far cry.

Mentioning that the physical implementation of the project is 72 per cent till now while the financial implementation is more than half, the adviser said, “We can axe the project if we think that this project is a bad project, but that cannot be done, the port was established primarily to import coal for the power plant.”

Wahiduddin Mahmud said that two advisers have already visited the port lamenting that this is not a seaport, not a river port, it is merely a dock for boats. Two dredgers have been bought for this port which will be used round the year to dredge the long channel, he mentioned.

“Without dredging it cannot be used as a river port,” Wahiduddin Mahmud said, adding that without this the power plant cannot be managed to run.

The planning adviser said that ECNEC asked him to visit the port and find the best solution for this project. “I can say right now that there is no best solution to this--theoretically this is a bad project.”

Wahiduddin Mahmud said that this project can be stopped, but the coal-based power plant cannot be shut down. “This plant is running well, we have to bring coal for this one,” he added.

But, he said, this project will be termed a loss project in the coming future as it will incur loss for the country.

The Port of Payra, situated in Kalapara, Patuakhali, Bangladesh, was established through an Act of Parliament in 2013 and officially inaugurated in 2016.

Located on the Ramnabad Channel, near the Bay of Bengal, the port is supposed to serve as a key gateway for maritime trade in the region.​
 

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