‘Dream one step closer to reality’: Padma Bridge gets final slab

The dream of the people of southern Bangladesh is one step closer to reality as the final slab has been installed on the Padma Bridge.

The slab was set around 10 am on Monday, said executive engineer Dewan Md Abdul Kader. Casting pitch over the 6.15 km bridge is all that is left now to make it fully operational.

Two of the last three slabs of as many as 2,917 of them were installed on Sunday night before the last one was installed on the span of piers 12 and 13 of the bridge in the morning.

According to official accounts, 87.25 percent of the project was completed by July, while 94.25 percent of the bridge construction was done.

The project is supposed to be wrapped up by June next year as per the last revised plan.

Officials said casting pitch on the bridge, which will begin towards the end of October, will take around three months. The construction of road dividers and sidewalls has already begun.

The project took off in December 2014 before Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated work on the main bridge a year later.

In December 2020, the bridge came into full view with the installation of 41 spans in 42 piers stretching 150 metres.

Regular transports will travel on the upper section of the two-storey bridge, while trains will take the lower route.