Two of the government’s top priority projects – Padma Multi-Purpose Bridge and Padma Bridge Rail Link Project – continues to progress even at a time when the entire country has come to a standstill due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.
Although most of the government’s fast track projects came to a halt due to the pandemic, Chinese contractors tasked with the two mega projects have kept the wheels turning for the two mega projects.
However, the pace of the progress in the two projects has slowed down significantly due to the shortage of Bangladeshi workers.
The Chinese contractors said adequate safety measures have been taken in view of the pandemic to keep the work uninterrupted.
“The Padma Bridge Rail Link Project and Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project have been continuing progress despite the coronavirus outbreak,” Wang Kun, spokesperson of China Railway Group Limited (CREC), the contractor of Padma Bridge Rail Link Project, said in a statement.
“CREC has been making huge efforts to provide a safe working environment for its workers to ensure that they do not contract Covid-19 from the workplace,” he added.
“For its 9,000-member strong workforce in Bangladesh, the company has already procured masks, protective suits, Covid-19 test kits, goggles, hand gloves, infrared thermometers, disinfectants, hand-sanitizers and various kinds of medicines from China and local market. All of these resources are now being used to ensure zero infection among its Chinese and local staff,” said Wang Kun, in a press release.
However, site engineers say that a quarter of the workforce was actually working on the site since the pandemic began.
Besides, the last pier of the bridge among the 42 piers was installed last week. Moreover, the 28th span of the Padma Multipurpose Bridge has installed on Saturday morning.
Now, all the piers spanning 4.2km of the 6.15km-long bridge have become visible on the Padma river site.
“The construction work has been going on amid the coronavirus outbreak,” said Bangladesh Bridge Authority Executive Engineer Dewan Abdul Quader.
At the same time, Railway Minister Nurul Islam Sujan told the Dhaka Tribune: “The Padma Bridge Rail link project continues to progress in the consultation with the Bangladesh Army and by ensuring social distancing.
“However, Bangladesh Railway’s other priority project, including the Chittagong-Cox’s Bazar Rail Link project has been halted by the local administration,” he added.
Not only railway projects, most infrastructure development projects have been halted as the government enforced social distancing across the country through the district administration with assistance from the armed forces to combat the spread of coronavirus.
The Metro Rail, which had been marked as another priority project of the government, has also been halted due to the outbreak.
Officials of the projects said construction work of metro rail MRT line-6, between Uttara to Motijheel, has been facing trouble due to the shortage of workers. Most of the workers on the project had left Dhaka for their ancestral homes after the government announced a public holiday from March 26 onwards.
Later, the government extended the public holiday twice to April 25.
Of the eight packages of the Metro Rail project, six packages were directly related to physical construction, which have been completely suspended due to the coronavirus outbreak.
“Around 500 foreign officials are working under the project. However, the absence of Bangladeshi workers on the site has interrupted the progress,” Dhaka Mass Transit Company Ltd (MRT line-6) Additional Project Director (Civil) Abdul Baquee Miah said.
