Construction of railway track on Padma Bridge completed

The construction of the railway track on the Padma Bridge was completed on Wednesday with the installation of the final sleeper and the casting of the last seven-metre section of the track.

A trial run of a train on the 6.68 km rail line on the bridge is scheduled for 4 April.

Confirming the news, Brigadier Saeed Ahmed, project manager-1 of the Padma Bridge Rail Link Project, said, "The concrete part of the last seven-metre section will take 48-72 hours to be ready for train movement."

Officials said constructing the stone-free rail track on the bridge and keeping it open for vehicle movement was considered a major challenge.

Afzal Hossain, project director of the Padma Bridge Rail Link Project, said, "After finalising the design, construction on the main bridge for the railway began in November last year. The work has been completed within four months. Currently, we have made 74% progress on the Dhaka to Mawa section, 92% progress on the Mawa to Bhanga section, and 68% progress on the Bhanga to Jashore section. Overall, our progress is approximately 75%."

"We are hopeful that, barring any natural calamities, we will be able to complete the entire project by June 2024," he added.

According to the engineers, the Padma Rail Bridge has a total length of 6.68 km, which includes the 6.15 km main bridge and the viaducts on both sides. A total of 11,140 sleepers have been installed on the main bridge. Except for the eight steel sleepers of the movement joints, all the sleepers are made of concrete.

Apart from the Padma Bridge, so far, 32 railway culverts, 37 underpasses and 13 railway bridges have been completed on the 169 km level crossing-free railway track.

Free of level-crossings, the much-awaited rail project is set to significantly reduce travelling hours from the capital Dhaka to India's Kolkata through Jessore to just over three hours and to Khulna to four hours.