Fresh erosion at Padma Bridge construction yard

Another 80 square metres area of the Padma Bridge construction yard in Louhajang’s Kumarbhog has been washed away by strong river currents only four days after a jetty, link road and a temporary concrete plant were devoured by the river.

Wednesday’s erosion was just to the east of the 250 square metre stretch eroded on Sunday, the bridge project’s Executive Engineer Dewan Abdul Kader told bdnews24.com.
 
They had managed to tame the erosion four days back using sandbags and bamboos.
 
The engineer said they were doing all they could to arrest the fresh erosion.
 
The construction yard, a kilometre-off the main bridges area, was first hit by the erosion, triggered by strong currents, on June 27.
 
The Padma River has risen another 10 centimetres to flow just eight centimetres below the danger level in the last 24 hours. 
 
Bhaggyakul River is already flowing 11 centimetres above the red line.

Dredging at Louhajong starts

Dredging of Shimulia-Kawrakandi ferry route started from Wednesday morning.

Ferry operations on the route, known as the gateway of southern Bangladesh, has been hampered for the last two weeks due to sedimentation at the Louhajong turning point.

Services were effectively out of operation for the last six days as water-depth has decreased below the required 7.5 feet.

BIWTA Assistant Manager Shekhar Chander Roy said two small K-type ferries could only ply on the route plagued with navigability crisis. All of the other 16 vessels, including four Ro-Ro ferries, could not operate.

Officials said nearly 300,000 cubic metres of silt would initially be removed from the channel using two big dredgers brought in from the Padma Bridge project.

A 12-strong team of specialists and officials of Chinese contractor Sino Hydro Company conducted a survey on Tuesday to determine the future course of action.

BIWTA Executive Engineer (Dredging) Md Sultan Uddin Ahmed Khan said, “We will have to dredge out 2.2 million cubic metres of silt from the total passage. We will take out 200,000-300,000 cubic metres from Louhajong turning point at first.”

The river transport authority official also expressed hopes that the navigability crisis would be tamed within 5-7 days and ferry operations would become normal. Even on Wednesday, nearly 400 vehicles were seen stranded on both sides of the crossing.