Meeting with donors tomorrow to confirm funds for Padma Bridge

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FHM Humayan Kabir
The government will sit with representatives of some donors tomorrow (Sunday) to obtain confirmation of their funding assurances for building the proposed Padma bridge to connect the south-west region with the capital city of Dhaka.
The government has decided to meet the donors as no firm commitment to finance the project has yet been received from them, official sources said.
The government, in the meeting, will seek commitments from the donors who earlier gave assurance to provide financial support for the US$1.3 billion Padma Bridge project and simultaneously request other donors to financially support the large investment, the sources added.
Sources in the ERD said that the donors including the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Japan, the UK's Department for International Development (DFID), Germany and the Netherlands are expected to attend the meeting.
The ERD will request the global lenders -- the WB, the ADB and Japan -- to confirm their funding assurance while the governments of the German and the Netherlands will be requested to provide financial support for the Padma bridge construction.
A senior ERD official said that the WB and the ADB had earlier assured the government of providing US$300 million each for the proposed project.
"As per the donors' plan, they might release the fund in next fiscal 2008-09 for the construction of the bridge. But the government wants to start the construction of the bridge sooner," he added.
According to the feasibility study by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the 6.01 kilometre Padma Bridge will be constructed at the Mawa-Janjira point at a cost of around $1.3 billion.
The construction of the 25-metre wide, four-lane Padma Bridge with a provision for railway tracks is expected to take four to five years.
Earlier in May 2005, the JICA handed over the feasibility study report to the then communications minister at his office in Dhaka.
In the report, JICA recommended that the construction of the Padma Bridge would take 54 months. It said construction of the railway line on the bridge will necessitate a 13 per cent rise in the total cost of the project.
The JICA began their feasibility study on the Padma Bridge on its own fund in May 2003 and completed the work in March 2005.
As per environmental and social impact assessment study report, the Padma Bridge construction will require to acquisition 616.5 hectares of land (less than one-third of the are acquired under the Jamuna Bridge project). Of the total land, 554 hectares will be acquired on the Janjira side, while 62.5 hectares on the Mawa side.
Over 35 per cent of the total land will be required for river training, while 25 percent of the land will be used for the approach roads in Janjira.
A total of 12.16 kilometre-long approach road, comprising 11.950km long and 25m wide embankment road at the Janjira site and 213m long and 25m wide embankment at the Mawa site will be constructed.
The mega bridge project that will connect all the major divisions and cities is expected to contribute to the national economy through boosting the gross domestic product (GDP) by 1.2 per cent.