Bangladesh to build 2.4-billion-dollar bridge

DHAKA: Bangladesh is to build the country's biggest bridge at a cost of 2.4 billion dollars in a bid to spur economic growth in its impoverished southwest, a minister said Monday.

Finance Minister A.M.A Muhith said the government would invite international tenders for the 6.15-kilometre (3.8-mile) road and rail bridge over the river Padma in February.

Construction of what will be the longest bridge in Bangladesh is set to begin in the second half of 2010.

‘The bridge will cost 2.4 billion dollars, with the World Bank lending an estimated 1.2 billion dollars and the Asian Development Bank 550 million dollars,’ Muhith told AFP.

Other donors include the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the Islamic Development Bank.

The minister said the bridge over the Padma -- the local name for the Ganges -- would be Bangladesh's costliest infrastructure project to date and would facilitate economic growth in the south and southwestern regions.

A World Bank study has said the bridge, which will connect the capital Dhaka with the country's coastal districts, will boost growth because it will improve transport links in the poverty-hit southwestern region.

A 4.8-kilometre bridge over the river Jamuna, which cost nearly one billion dollars, connected the capital with northwestern districts in 1998 and fuelled economic growth in the entire region, which is regularly afflicted by famines and floods. –AFP