Tender for Padma Bridge next month: Minister

GOPALGANJ, March 13 (BSS): Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain here today said the government is hopeful of completing the Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project in its tenure as the tender for the bridge is going to be invited next month. "We would try our best to complete construction works of the Padma bridge project by 2013 as a tender is to be invited in April," he told a view exchange meeting in the Circuit House here Sunday. The meeting was organised to evaluate the progress of various development projects taken by the ministry of communications for Gopalganj zone comprising five districts. Two power point presentations were made on the existing development activities taken by Roads and Highways Department and Bangladesh Railway under the ministry of communications for the Gopalganj zone. Communications Secretary Mozammel Haque Khan, Roads and Highways department chief engineer M Sahabuddin, director general of Bangladesh Railway Tauhidul Anwar Chowdhury, Project director of Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project Eng Rafiqul Islam and AL religious affairs secretary Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah and general secretary Embadul Haque Chowdhury spoke on the occasion. The Minister described the mobilisation of Tk 185.0 billion for the Padma Bridge from donor agencies as the biggest success of his ministry in the past years and said donor agencies appreciated the government move to expedite the process of starting construction works of Padma Bridge. He said the government has taken a project to establish rail link between Tungipara and other parts of the country. The Minister said construction of a bridge, named after Bangabandhu's father Sheikh Lutfur Rahman, in Gopalganj is going on in full swing and is expected to be completed in stipulated time.