Built in 1930, the 239-meter-long bridge is crucial for train movements on the Cox's Bazar route, which came to a halt after an open roof model of the Jeep Wrangler SUV (sports utility vehicle) crashed on the ancient bridge and broke the railing on September 7 last year.
The dual purpose bridge, currently being renovated with Tk 430 million, is so essential for the locals that motorcycles, three-wheelers, cars and even buses are already using the bridge violating the law and taking risks as accidents have been happening as a result.
On August 1, 2023, Bangladesh Railway (BR) began repairing the bridge, thus the traffic was closed for about a year. The authorities just completed the asphalt carpeting on the road slabs and increased the load capacity during renovation.
"The bridge is likely to be opened for traffic in November next," BR sources said. A three-member expert team of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) inspected the latest progress of the bridge work on Tuesday afternoon, according to the sources.
The team, headed by Professor Dr Saiful Amen, a teacher at BUET's Department of Civil Engineering, inspected the renovation work and advised in favour of officially opening the bridge within the scheduled time and shared their views with the engineers, who led the renovation works, regarding officially opening the bridge for traffic and the remaining works.
Officials of the BR (Eastern Zone) said that the old Kalurghat Bridge is fully ready for movement of vehicles now, but it will be opened for traffic only following the green signal of BUET's expert team.
Bridge Engineer of BR (Eastern Zone) Engineer Jisan Dutta said, "The carpeting work of the bridge has been completed. Reforms have been delayed due to agitation-violence. The renovation work will be completed within the current month."
"The bridge will be officially opened for vehicular and pedestrian traffic soon after carrying out technical tests. The bridge is now ready for traffic. As per the opinion of the BUET experts, we hope that the bridge will be opened for traffic in November next," the engineer said.
"BUET's expert team has expressed satisfaction over the repair work of the bridge. But still there is little work left. Bridge painting and street light installation work is left. These works will be completed within a month. After that it will be officially opened for traffic," he added.
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