The Second
Meghna and Second Meghna-Gomti Bridge (Daudkandi Bridge) has been inaugurated by
the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on 25th May 2019, Saturday morning through
video conferencing from Ganobhaban. The life-line of Bangladesh's economy, the
highly anticipated Dhaka-Chittagong highway (N1) is now feeling better! Since
the inauguration, the bridges (Meghna, Meghna-Gomti and Kanchpur) are opened
for vehicular movement.
Due to the inauguration
of the bridges, the people of the south-east are can return to their home with
comfort to enjoy the Eid-Al-Fitr holiday. Nearly seven hundred Crore BD Taka for
the construction of the new second Meghna, second Meghna-Gomti Bridge including
the second Kanchpur Bridge, have been saved and the construction work has been completed
almost seven months before the tentative date.
The Japanese
ambassador in Bangladesh Mr. Hiroyasu Ejumi, in the inauguration ceremony,
expressed hope that Bangladesh-Japan relations will go much further.
In addition
to the second Meghna and the second Gomti-Meghna bridge, Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina inaugurated the Sasek road connecting project, the Konabari and Chandra
flyover at Joydevpur-Chandra-Tangail-Elenga Highway, Kaliakoir- Deohata-
Mirzapur- Gharinda underpass and Kadda-1 bridge and Baimail Bridge.
According to
local sources, from the booth sides more than 35 thousand vehicles are
transported daily by this National Highway (N1). To cross the toll plaza of the
two bridges passengers faces the traffic congestion. Due to daily traffic
congestion, the highway was become a great suffering route. The construction of
the second bridges has begun in 2016, to end the suffering of the last five to
six years.
For the
financial assistance of JICA and the Bangladesh government, the cost was Taka
1,950 crore for the Meghna-Gomti River which is 1,410 meters long with 17 spans
and 17.75 meters wide. The second Meghna Bridge of 17.75 meter width and the
cost of Taka 1,750 crore which is 930 meters long including 12 spans. Construction
of the two bridges ended in the 41st month for almost three and a half years.
Due to the
much-awaited inauguration of Meghna and Meghna-Gomati Bridges, there is no
traffic congestion on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway from today (25th
May, 2019). Peoples are not going to suffer for hours after hours and in the
Eid return home journey, hoping the passengers will not suffer further. It was
found that where there was a congestion hourly traffic jam on the previous day,
there was absolutely no traffic congestion on the highway except toll
collection time in the same place.
It is known
that in any long holiday breaks, including Eid every year caused long traffic
congestion when the people's back home. The traffic congestion sometimes crossed
the Kanchpur Bridge at the Dhaka Sylhet highway intersection. Last year during
the Ramadan, the traffic congestion hit the Mayor Hanif Flyover of
Dhaka-Narayanganj under pressure from the people to return home. But the
traffic department said that there will be no more such problem again.
Passenger Mr.
Ariful traveled on this route told, "I come to Dhaka every week for my business
purpose. Before that it took hours after hours to cross the road. Before one
day, we had to pass hours in one place. After the bridge started today, I crossed
in a moment. Hopefully we will not suffer the trouble of Eid festival”.
The bus
driver of Dhaka-Cumilla Tisha Exclusive service told that the bridges have
introduced and they are really happy. They had suffered a lot and wasted lots of
time before the inauguration. Sometimes even days have passed; they had Iftar
and Sahari on the road. It is expected that there will be no more traffic jam on
this route.
There is a
Joint Expansion in the second Meghna Bridge of 930 meters long. As a result,
there will be no obstruction in the movement of this bridge. Vehicles will be
able to move on this bridge very quickly. The old Meghna Bridge is of two lanes
but the new is of four lanes. That means total six lanes in two bridges.
Vehicles with four lanes of roads can move to six lanes in two bridges. As a
result, due to the bridge there will be no traffic congestion will occur. The
bridges are now free of traffic.
Every year the
local administration take additional police help in controlling the traffic
congestion of this route. This year, the Second Meghna, Second Meghna-Gomti Bridge
(Daudkandi Bridge) and Kanchpur Bridge is ready, so they are expecting that this
year there will be no traffic congestion.
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