Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader on Wednesday said the plying of vehicles will begin on the Padma Bridge by June 2022.
“After the completion of the construction works of the Padma Bridge project, the bridge will be opened for vehicular movement by June 2022,” he told in a view-exchange meeting with officials of the Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) through videoconferencing.
Quader, also the Awami League general secretary, said rumours are being spread on social media over the time extension of the Padma Bridge project.
The ongoing construction work of the project will be completed by June 2022 and then the bridge will be opened for vehicular movement, he said.
If the bridge needs repairing, the timeframe will increase to June 2023 only for the construction firms, but physical works of the bridge project must be completed by June 2022, the minister said.
“I hope that the physical works of the Padma Bridge will be completed by June 2022,” he added.
Mentioning that there is no correlation between the extension of timeframe and the physical work of the bridge project, he said there is a liability period in a mega project to make the construction firms accountable so that the firms can complete necessary works later.
Asking the authorities concerned to take harsher steps to make the BRTC profitable, Quader said the public entity must get out of the circle of irregularity and continue its works to minimize losses that BRTC incurs every year.
About the Covid-19 inoculation campaign, he said the common people are willingly taking the vaccines shot through registration, rejecting all propaganda and rumours over the Covid-19 vaccines.
