JAMUNA MULTIPURPOSE BRIDGE or BANGABANDHU BRIDGE

JAMUNA MULTIPURPOSE BRIDGE or BANGABANDHU BRIDGE

Bangladesh is a land of rivers. Hundreds of rivers are criss-crossed all over the country. The rivers play different roles for the welfare of the people of Bangladesh in construction of Bangladesh in different ways. The Jamuna is one of them and the achievement in the history of economic development of the country.

At the very beginning it was named the Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge. But in 1997, according to the decision of the Cabinet Ministers’ Council conducted by the government, it has been named as Bangabandhu Bridge.
Bangladesh is divided into two parts. Namely East Bengal and South Bengal by the river Jamuna. In the way of transport and communication system, the mighty Jamuna so long stood as great stumbling block. This river flowing through the middle of the country largely impeded the transport probabilities to develop harmoniously throughout the country. So the demand to construct a bridge over the Jamuna came from the people for long days and the necessity of Bangabandhu Bridge became national.
Various steps were taken to construct this bridge at different times. The first demand was raised in 1963. In July 1996 a bill was adopted in this regard. In this bill it was said that a bridge must be constructed over the river Jamuna, With reference to it, foreign specialist surveyed many times in 1976 and 1982 respectively. However, execu7tive body was formed to construct the bridge in 1985 under an ordinance. In 1991 the Government of the bridge. After three years with the help of A. D. B. World Bank and Japanese government the construction started in reality in October 1994. It was completed in June, 1998.
The Bridge is 4.8 kilometres long and width of the main bridge is 18.5 meters. There are 49 spans of the bridge. The total pillars are 121 in number. The average length of the pile is 48 meters. The joint road of the east bank is 16.92 kilometres and that of the west bank is 16.94 kilometres in length.
The expenditure cost of the bridge is very big. It costs 962 million U.S dollars out of 200 million dollars have been donated by each of the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and Japan and Bangladesh has borne 362 million U.S dollars.
The Bridge was inaugurated on 3rd June, 1998 by Sheikh Hasina, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh.

The Bridge is a great achievement of Bangladesh. We hope, the bridge will help rapid economic development of the country.