Railway bridge worth 17,000 crore taka to be inaugurated in January
The country’s longest railway bridge is awaiting inauguration. This mega project built on the banks of the Jamuna River will be inaugurated next January. Through this, the life of the people of North and East Bengal will be much easier than before, and business will also increase.
The entire 4.8-kilometer-long Jamuna Railway Bridge is now visible. A total of 50 pillars and 49 spans, along with all other work, have already been completed. Now, construction work on the connecting railway and state-of-the-art platforms on both sides of the river is underway.
The final work of the Jamuna Railway Bridge is now underway 300 meters upstream of the Jamuna Bridge, with the tireless work of local and foreign engineers and workers day and night. This will be the country’s longest dual-gauge double-track railway bridge. The spans of the bridge have been made of specially made rust-proof large steel structures brought from Vietnam and Myanmar. And when the bridge is inaugurated, it will usher in a new era in the railway communication sector in the northern region.
According to project sources, the Jamuna Rail Bridge has been constructed to accommodate high-speed trains as well as regular trains. As a result, trains can run on the bridge at a maximum speed of 250 kilometers per hour. However, initially (one year after the inauguration), trains will generally run at a speed of 100 to 120 kilometers per hour. The trains will not cross the crossing. This will save 20 to 30 minutes.
According to project sources, the construction cost of the bridge, including the final design of the project, which was taken up in December 2016, was initially estimated at 9,734.7 million taka. Later, its duration was extended by two years. This increased the project cost by 7,470 million taka to 16,780 million taka. Of this, domestic financing accounted for 27.60 percent and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) provided a loan of 12,149 million taka, which is 72.40 percent of the project.
This 4.80 km long railway bridge with parallel dual gauge and double track has a 0.05 km viaduct, 7.667 km railway approach embankment and loop siding on both sides. In the project, a gas transmission line has been constructed along with the railway line.
Several businessmen of Sirajganj said that if the railway bridge is opened, the business landscape of Sirajganj will change. At the same time, it will also play a leading role in the development of the northern districts.
On the other hand, Jamuna Railway Bridge Project Director, Alfattah Md. Masudur Rahman said that all the work has already been completed and preparations are being made for the inauguration. If everything goes well, by the inauguration in January 2025, this dual gauge double track railway bridge will be able to run at a speed of 100 to 120 km. At least 88 trains will be able to operate daily at a speed of 100 to 120 km.
It is worth noting that the northwestern region’s rail connection with Dhaka was established only after the Jamuna Bridge was opened in 1998. In 2008, the speed of the train was reduced due to cracks appearing on the bridge. Currently, about 38 trains are crossing the bridge every day at a speed of 20 kilometers per hour. To solve these problems, the government took the initiative to build a separate rail bridge over the Jamuna River. On November 29, 2020, the then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina virtually laid the foundation stone of the bridge. After that, piling work began in March 2021 to construct the pillars of the rail bridge.
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