DHAKA, May 5 (Xinhua) — The 29th span of Bangladesh’s largest Chinese-built Padma bridge has been installed, amid the country’s nationwide COVID-19 lock-down, making 4.35 km of the main structure of the bridge visible.
Dewan Abdul Quader, a senior Bangladeshi engineer of the Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project, told journalists that, engineers of China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group Co., Ltd (MBEC), on Monday, successfully installed the span.
The around 3,200-tonne span was placed on pillars 19 and 20 of the bridge, he said.
With the installation of the 150-metre long span, the 29th span among the 41 spans has been installed, on the 6.15-km bridge, and 4.35 km of the bridge is now visible.
Despite the COVID-19 outbreak, many Chinese-built major projects, including Padma Bridge, are still under regular construction.
According to the project engineer, the next span of the bridge is likely to be installed later this month, as MBEC continued efforts to ensure timely completion of the core structure of the bridge, despite the COVID-19 outbreak that kept Bangladesh under lockdown since Mar 26.
Bangladeshi Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, inaugurated the main works of the Bridge project, the biggest of its kind in the country, in Dec, 2015.
Apart from connecting nearly 30 million people in Bangladesh’s southwest region, to the rest of the country, the bridge will enhance regional trade and collaboration along the Asian highway No. 1, and the Trans-Asian railway network.– NNN-XINHUA
