Bangabandhu Bridge

History and Background

The river Jamuna (Brahmaputra), along with the lower stretch of the Padma (Ganges) divides Bangladesh into nearly two equal halves. Until now all road and rail communication between the two parts of the country has had to rely on time-consuming ferry services that were often disrupted because of navigability problems in the rivers.

The need for a bridge over the river Jamuna was felt, especially by the people living in north-western Bangladesh, for a long time. This perceived need did not go unnoticed by the policy makers. On January 6, 1964, when Bangladesh was still a part of Pakistan, a member of the Provincial Legislative Assembly obtained an assurance from the Government about a feasibility study for a bridge over the Jamuna. Two years later, on 11 July, 1966, the same Assembly unanimously resolved to build the bridge. In 1969 a preliminary study to this end. was carried out by Freeman Fox and Partners of UK.

This satellite image provides a view of the Jamuna at the bridge site with the bridge location superimposed

After Bangladesh attained independence in 1971, in response to a request from the Government, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) conducted a feasibility study from 1972 to 1976. This was followed by a techno-economic study for carrying a natural gas pipeline over the river conducted jointly by Rendel Palmer and Tritton (RPT) of UK, PENCOL of UK and Bangladesh Consultants Ltd. (BCL) in 1984. That same year the Government of Bangladesh decided to proceed with the construction and the Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge Authority (JMBA) was constituted the following year.

Between 1986 and 1989, feasibility studies in two phases were carried out by a consortium of RPT, NEDECO and BCL. Construction tenders were called in 1992 and the following year saw the finalisation of funding arrangements with International Development Agency (IDA), Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF). The contracts with contractors were signed in April, 1994, and construction began in October of that year.

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