Jamuna railway bridge set to open in late January

The first double-line dual gauge railway bridge over the river Jamuna is expected to open in late January.

"We've completed construction of the main bridge while overall progress of the work is over 98 per cent," Project Director of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Railway Bridge Al Fattah Md Masudur Rahman told BSS on Monday.

He said the total length of the bridge is 4.8 kilometres, while distance from east railway station to west railway station is 13 kilometres.

"We have completed test run on the double-line dual gauge railway bridge and taken preparations to begin commercial operation in late January or early February 2025," the project director added.

He said that all sort of trials with measuring of parameters of the bridge and static load measurement have been completed successfully.

According to the project details, the 4.8km bridge, which is the largest dedicated rail bridge of the country, is being constructed at a cost of Tk 167.80 billion.

Of the estimated cost, Tk 130 billion was allocated for construction of the main bridge and other related work. Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has given around Tk 120 billion, while the government of Bangladesh has provided rest of the money.

Two Japanese joint-venture firms have been carrying out the main work of the project taken in 2016.

The dual-gauge double-track bridge, having gas pipeline facility, is being built some 300 metres upstream of the Bangabandhu Bridge.

In December 2016, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council passed the bridge project at a cost of Tk 97.34 billion and the project was scheduled to be completed within December 2023.

But the physical work of the project started in August 2020 and the foundation work of the bridge was begun in March 2021, it said.

The rail bridge would also have a positive impact on the country's gross domestic product (GDP) growth.

The railway bridge would improve the capacity of Bangladesh Railway (BR) in operating more trains between the capital and the western part of the country. It would also help reduce train delays.

The new rail bridge will have the capacity to operate 88 trains daily, while a maximum of 22 trains could travel smoothly on single-line dual gauge Bangabandhu Bridge a day.