Live Correspondent: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the much-awaited Second Meghna Bridge and the Second Gumti Bridge on the Dhaka Chattogram highway tomorrow.

“The prime minister will open the bridges through a videoconference from her official Ganabhaban residence tomorrow,” Prime Minister’s Office sources said.

The prime minister will also open Konabari and Chandra flyover, Kaliakair, Deohata, Mirzapur and Gharinda underpass and Kadda-1 and Bimail bridges on the Joydebpur-Chandra-Tangail-Elenga Highway under the SASEC Road Link Project.

Apart from this, she will launch the new intercity train named “Panchagarh Express” on the Dhaka-Panchagarh route.

Talking to BSS, Abu Saleh Md Nuruzzaman, Project Director of the Kanchpur, Meghna and Gumti 2nd Bridges Construction and Existing Bridges Rehab Project, said with the newly-built Kanchpur Bridge already in operation, the two new additions are expected to bring relief to travelers on the Dhaka-Chattogram highway, especially during this Eid holidays.

Earlier, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the Second Kanchpur Bridge on the river Shitalakkhya on March 16 this year.

Nuruzzaman said Japanese contractors Obayshi Corporation, Shimizu Corporation, JFE Engineer Corporation, and IHI Infra Systems Company Limited started the constructions of the 2nd Kanchpur bridge along with the 2nd Meghna and 2nd Meghna-Gumti bridges on the Dhaka-Chattogram Highway in January 2016.

The total estimated cost of the three bridges was at Taka 8,487 crore, of which Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) provided Taka 6,430 crore. The cost of the project may be over Taka 1,000 crore less than what was estimated, he added.

Dual carriageway between the port city and the capital shrinks to a single one at the Meghna and Gumti bridges. The old Kanchpur Bridge is technically a dual carriageway but its width is not adequate.

Dhaka, 24 May (campuslive24.com)//MIH