Trial run on Padma Bridge railway on 4 April

Railway construction over the Padma Bridge is almost complete and a trial run of train on the bridge is scheduled for 4 April after the final work on a seven-metre section, a railways ministry official said.

If all goes according to plan, Railways Minister Nurul Islam Sujan would oversee the first trial run from Mawa to Jazira.

A specially-built sleeper arrived from China on Monday, paving the way for concrete casting on the seven-metre section – the last one of the tracks on the Padma Bridge.

About 48 hours after the concrete casting, the line on the bridge would be ready for train movements, said Project Manager Brigadier General Syeed Ahmed.

Almost 98.50% construction work of the 6.68km railway bridge has been completed. However, the bridge accounts for a small portion of the 169km railway from the capital to Jashore.

About 74.14% of the work on Dhaka-Mawa section has been completed while construction of the Mawa-Bhanga portion will be completed by June – putting the total project progress at 75.92%, said Shariful Alam, public relations officer of the Ministry of Railways, on Tuesday.

Free of level-crossings, the much-awaited rail project is set to significantly reduce travelling hours from the capital Dhaka to India's Kolkata through Jessore to just over three hours and to Khulna to four hours.

The last sleeper to be installed on the bridge section is steel-made and 63 others of its type have already been installed after being flown in from special China-based melting facilities. These sleepers have additional strength to support the eight rail movement joints installed in the lower deck of the two-level Padma Bridge.

Other sleepers of the project are made of concrete and were manufactured locally at a Chinese factory in Faridpur. In total, 11,140 sleepers have been installed on the bridge.

Notably, railway construction works continued in full swing even as vehicles kept moving on the upper level of the bridge to help meet the deadline.