Plan to complete Padma bridge by April next year

[bluesky]

Plan to complete Padma bridge by April next year

The length of the entire bridge is about 10km that includes 6.15km main bridge and 3.68km viaduct on the both sides of the river

en.prothomalo.com

Plan to complete Padma bridge by April next year
Anowar Hossain
Dhaka
Published: 02 Jul 2021, 21:45

Photo shows the Padma bridge under construction. Collected

The Chinese contractor firm for Padma bridge, China Major Bridge Engineering Company (MBEC), wants to complete the construction of the bridge by April next year. The MBEC said all work including road carpeting will be completed and the bridge will be completely ready for vehicular movement during this time. Work on street lighting and illumination will be completed too.

Sources at the Bridges Division said the contractor company MBEC submitted the last progress report on the work of the main bridge on 8 June. It mentioned the deadlines of every work. Though the MBEC said it would complete the work by 30 April, but the bridges division thinks it can be done much earlier. According to the project progress report, the overall progress of the project is 87 percent as of 30 June.


According to the last revised project proposal, work on the project will end by June next year. But the project deadline will be for one more year to fix any possible faults, if developed, in the bridge and pay the contractor’s arrears.

The bridges division sources said now it is important for the main bridge construction to be completed, installing 2,917 concrete slabs to complete the traffic lane. Some 192 slabs are left to be installed. The contractor firm said they would complete the work by 20 October. Officials of the bridges division, however, said if favourable weather continues, it’s possible to finish this work in August because 100 slabs are installed in a month and the contractor firm also laid 110 slabs in last May.

Construction of the double-deck Padma bridge is underway to connect Munshiganj’s Mawa point to Shariatpur’s Zajira point. Vehicle will run on the upper deck and train on the lower deck. The length of the entire bridge is about 10km that includes 6.15km main bridge and 3.68km viaduct on the both sides of the river. Construction of viaduct has been done at Zajira end while work on viaduct will be completed at Mawa end by 15 July.

When asked, project director of Padma bridge project MD Shafiqul Islam told Prothom Alo the contractor firm says they would complete the work by April next year. However, a decision to reopen the bridge in June next year is still in place. The on-going work is not technically complex, but delicate and one is connected to another. Now, the priority is to complete installing concrete slabs immediately.

Illumination and other work
There will be two types of illumination in Padma bridge. One is street lighting for vehicular movement and the other is a permanent lighting system with the purpose of illuminating the entire bridge on the occasion of any festival or national day. The entire system is called architectural lighting.

According to the project documents, two power substations will be set up at both ends of the bridge to supply electricity for street lighting and supply of necessary equipment is likely to complete in two months. A total of 836 lampposts will be installed on the both side of the traffic lanes on the bridge. Supply of these lampposts is likely by September.

Officials at the bridges division said street lighting wouldn’t take much time, but it can’t begin unless installing of slabs and other work end. That’s why deadline of this work has been fixed by 30 April next year.

Railway work progressing
Construction of railway track with installing 2,959 concrete slabs ended on 12 June. Installment of gas pipeline next to the railway track is underway and likely to be competed in next 2-3 months. Besides, walkway is being constructed to carry out the maintenance and supervision for the railway track and likely to be completed in two months.

Railway authorities are implementing a separate project to construct railway lines on both sides of Padma bridge to connect Dhaka to Jashore at a cost of Tk 400 billion (40,000 crore). However, work on installing the railway tracks hasn’t started as yet.

* This report appeared in the print and online edition of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten in English by Hasanul Banna

 

[mb444]

Would be a great milestone for the country.... credit where its due.... Hasina single handedly pushed this through and if it lifts GDP by the 1% that has been estimated in my book much of her anti democratic actions can be cancelled out..

 

[SpaceMan18]

Would be a great milestone for the country.... credit where its due.... Hasina single handedly pushed this through and if it lifts GDP by the 1% that has been estimated in my book much of her anti democratic actions can be cancelled out..

I mean South Korea became developed with a dictator in charge so why can't we lol ?

 

[Bilal9]

I mean South Korea became developed with a dictator in charge so why can't we lol ?

Park Chung Hee and Hasina are two different animals.....

 

[bluesky]

I mean South Korea became developed with a dictator in charge so why can't we lol ?

Do not please make mistakes about South Korean development. It started after Japan initiated many of its social and physical infrastructure development stunts in Korea after it occupied it in 1905. Many of the factories built by Japan are still running in North Korea.

Park Chung Hee and Hasina are two different animals.....

A mango tree bears fruits for a season after many years of nurturing. It was the same with Korea. It did not develop because Park Chung Hee or Syngman Rhee after 1948 were short-term dictators. The development started a Century earlier when Japan was the colonial power there.

South Korea even blackmailed Japan to pay them $4 billion in the 1970s that it never refunded. Its value is more than $20 billion now and it was also the seed money. I must also say that by nature the Mongolid people of Japan, Korea, or China are very hard working.

Our people see only the fruit-bearing time and not the nurturing time of the tree.

South Korea - The Japanese Role in Korea's Economic Development

countrystudies.us

The Japanese Role in Korea's Economic Development

​

South Korea Table of Contents "The Japanese, who dominated Korea from the late 1890s to 1945 and who governed Korea as a colony from 19l0 to 1945, were responsible for the initial economic modernization of Korea. Before 1900 Korea had a relatively backward agricultural economy. According to scholar Donald S. Macdonald, for centuries most Koreans lived as subsistence farmers of rice and other grains and satisfied most of their basic needs through their own labor or through barter. The manufactures of traditional Korea-- principally cloth, cooking and eating utensils, furniture, jewelry, and paper--were produced by artisans in a few population centers. Following the annexation of Korea in 19l0, Japan thrust a modern blend of industrial capitalism onto a feudal agrarian society. By the end of the colonial period, Japan had built an extensive infrastructure of roads, railroads, ports, electrical power, and government buildings that facilitated both the modernization of Korea's economy and Japan's control over the modernization process. The Japanese located various heavy industries--steel, chemicals, and hydroelectric power--across Korea, but mainly in the north. The Japanese government played an even more active role in developing Korea than it had played in developing the Japanese economy in the late nineteenth century. Many programs drafted in Korea in the 1920s and 1930s originated in policies drafted in Japan during the Meiji period (1868-1912). The Japanese government helped to mobilize resources for development and provided entrepreneurial leadership for these new enterprises. Colonial economic growth was initiated through powerful government efforts to expand the economic infrastructure, to increase investment in human capital through health and education, and to raise productivity. In some respects, South Korean patterns of development after the early 1960s closely followed the methodology introduced by the Japanese fifty years earlier--industrialization from above using a strong bureaucracy that formulated and implemented economic policies. Many of the developments that took place in Chosen, the Japanese name for Korea during the period of colonization, had also occurred in pre-World War II Japan; they were implementation of a strong education system and the spread of literacy; the rise of a strong, authoritarian government that combined civilian and military administration to govern the state with strict discipline; the fostering and implementation of comprehensive economic programs by the state through its control of the huge national bureaucracy; the close collaboration between government and business leaders; and the development of industries by the major Japanese zaibatsu (commercial conglomerates). Some political analysts, for example, Bruce Cumings and Gavan McCormick, have been impressed with the common elements in prewar and postwar economic growth in South Korea and especially with top-down government management of the economy. Economists, such as Paul W. Kuznets, however, also draw attention to the dysfunctional aspects of the colonial legacy and find some of the discontinuities important. It is also important to note that between the end of World War II and Park Chung Hee's ascension to power in 1961, there was a major rupture, both politically and economically, from the Japanese colonial period. There was considerable disruption after 1945 because of plant exhaustion; the loss of linkages with Japanese capital and with upstream and downstream industrial facilities; the loss of technical expertise, distribution systems, and markets; and the subsequent obliteration of the industrial plant during the Korean War (1950-53)".

 

[SpaceMan18]

Park Chung Hee and Hasina are two different animals.....

Yes one's Asian and the other one is an alien

 

[bluesky]

When asked, project director of Padma bridge project MD Shafiqul Islam told Prothom Alo the contractor firm says they would complete the work by April next year. However, a decision to reopen the bridge in June next year is still in place. The on-going work is not technically complex, but delicate and one is connected to another. Now, the priority is to complete installing concrete slabs immediately.

The Project Director is correct. The main construction is visible and so people expect the project to be soon completed. But, to do the remaining small and tiny things take quite a long time. So, people should not expect the authority to open the bridge for train operations so soon as July next year.

Moreover, the Mawa point viaduct construction will only start now. I believe there will be heavy piling works under the foundations of the viaduct that takes a long time. Then, there are works such as the construction of Pile Caps, Piers (Pillers), Steel/ RCC Girders, RCC Slabs, Railings, and many others I do not know because I have not seen the Drawings.

 

[Michael Corleone]

Have you guys read the news of increasing “accidental” crashing of ferries into the bridge pillars? Pillar 10, 16, 17 has been crashed into multiple times and they sustained great damage. Now the government has decided to install rubber tires on the bridge and the ferries and put two army personnel in each ferries at all times

 

[Bilal9]

Have you guys read the news of increasing “accidental” crashing of ferries into the bridge pillars? Pillar 10, 16, 17 has been crashed into multiple times and they sustained great damage. Now the government has decided to install rubber tires on the bridge and the ferries and put two army personnel in each ferries at all times

I hate to float conspiracy theories, but someone is definitely trying to damage the bridge in old fashioned manner. Damaging the bridge would help their cause of keeping us subservient. There has been five cases of collision with the bridge piers so far.

Add the fact that the military found illegal Indian citizens walking around on top of the bridge at night, and it adds to the suspicion. Bastards...will be paid back someday.

Although damage was done, I would not term it great damage...

The Ferry Masters and 'Sukani's were put under temporary suspension while BIWTA investigates who is behind this. I am surprised we don't have a dept. of industrial espionage protection to investigate this like India and Pakistan does. Or maybe I just don't know. We need more expertise and funding in this area. Having Billions of dollars in critical infra is not sufficient. You have to know how to protect these installations too.

AFAIK, Padma Bridge has an active surface to air missile installation to protect it so the Army definitely did its homework.

What they did not figure is that our enemies would use a far cheaper and convenient method....

 

[bluesky]

I hate to float conspiracy theories, but someone is definitely trying to damage the bridge in old fashioned manner. Damaging the bridge would help their cause of keeping us subservient. There has been five cases of collision with the bridge piers so far.

Add the fact that the military found illegal Indian citizens walking around on top of the bridge at night, and it adds to the suspicion. Bastards...will be paid back someday.

Although damage was done, I would not term it great damage...

The Ferry Masters and 'Sukani's were put under temporary suspension while BIWTA investigates who is behind this. I am surprised we don't have a dept. of industrial espionage protection to investigate this like India and Pakistan does. Or maybe I just don't know. We need more expertise and funding in this area. Having Billions of dollars in critical infra is not sufficient. You have to know how to protect these installations too.

AFAIK, Padma Bridge has an active surface to air missile installation to protect it so the Army definitely did its homework.

What they did not figure is that our enemies would use a far cheaper and convenient method....

A small ferry cannot do damage to a bridge pier but heavy bombings can. So, the authorities must put vigilantes around the bridge round the clock. However, the trusses will be weaker than the piers.

By the way, many captains of the ships are unable to maneuver their ships at night because of fast water flow. So, piers should be lighted and a few large protection tiers can be hung around the piers. In that case, a ferry may hit the pier but the tires will protect it from being damaged.

However, sheet piles should be dug around all the piers as a permanent measure instead of trying to seek foreign invasion. A foreign country will not send a lone guy there.

 

[Michael Corleone]

I hate to float conspiracy theories, but someone is definitely trying to damage the bridge in old fashioned manner. Damaging the bridge would help their cause of keeping us subservient. There has been five cases of collision with the bridge piers so far.

Add the fact that the military found illegal Indian citizens walking around on top of the bridge at night, and it adds to the suspicion. Bastards...will be paid back someday.

Although damage was done, I would not term it great damage...

The Ferry Masters and 'Sukani's were put under temporary suspension while BIWTA investigates who is behind this. I am surprised we don't have a dept. of industrial espionage protection to investigate this like India and Pakistan does. Or maybe I just don't know. We need more expertise and funding in this area. Having Billions of dollars in critical infra is not sufficient. You have to know how to protect these installations too.

AFAIK, Padma Bridge has an active surface to air missile installation to protect it so the Army definitely did its homework.

What they did not figure is that our enemies would use a far cheaper and convenient method....

Wouldn’t be surprising if they load a speed boat full of explosives and ram the bridge… army should deploy gunboats in the area for good measure

 

[Bilal9]

Wouldn’t be surprising if they load a speed boat full of explosives and ram the bridge… army should deploy gunboats in the area for good measure

Could be the idiot ferry masters themselves, they'd be out of a job soon (and the related fringe benefits worth a lot more), figures.

The Army posted two armed soldiers on each ferry bridge with orders to watch the Ferry masters.

Gun boats are also to be deployed soon before they put in rubber barriers around the pile caps. They should escort the ferries back and forth and watch what these idiots do.

 

[Michael Corleone]

Could be the idiot ferry masters themselves, they'd be out of a job soon (and the related fringe benefits worth a lot more), figures.

The Army posted two armed soldiers on each ferry bridge with orders to watch the Ferry masters.

Gun boats are also to be deployed soon before they put in rubber barriers around the pile caps. They should escort the ferries back and forth and watch what these idiots do.

Agreed, a few thrashed meat won’t be a big deal compared to a 2+Bln dollar bridge needing repairs