Many long bridges over the mighty rivers have been constructed in many countries around the world. But nowhere has there been an organized and pompous inauguration such as the one for the Padma Bridge in Bangladesh.
Knowledgeable circles believe Sheikh Hasina, in order to bury her failures, corruption, human rights violations and autocratic rule had organized such a propaganda-based and expensive inauguration. It is as though she alone should get the credit for constructing it. But, there is a historical backdrop to the inauguration, initiation and construction of the bridge over the Padma, which the new generation needs to know.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia was elected in 1991 as the first female Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She is actually the forerunner of constructing many bridges over the mighty rivers of Bangladesh, including the Padma.
On September 3 of 1991 she laid the foundation stone of the Meghna – Gomati Bridge and inaugurated it on November 1 of 1993. On that day, she declared that within a short period of time, there would be no more ferries on any of the rivers, as bridges would be constructed over all them. As a result, national highways would connect Teknaf to Tantulia and Tamabil to Vetkhali. She stated that transportation from one part of the country to the other would be possible within a short period of time. Her declaration proved that she was the forerunner and dreamer of all the bridges that were constructed after her time in office.
Keeping uniformity with her pledges, Begum Zia laid the foundation stone of the Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge on April 10, 1994. Astonishingly, the leader of the opposition at the time, Sheikh Hasina, imposed a nationwide general strike on that day. The government was compelled to use helicopters to ferry in the diplomats, foreign dignitaries, journalists and other guests from Dhaka to the Jamuna Bridge area. More than 80% of the construction work of the bridge was completed before the end of Begum Zia’s first term as the PM of Bangladesh. Completing the remaining 20% of the work, Sheikh Hasina inaugurated it on June 23, 1998.
Violating decency and courtesy, Sheikh Hasina purposely and shamelessly changed the name of the Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge to Bangabandhu Bridge and erased the name of Begum Khaleda Zia from the inauguration plaque and had her own name placed.
Hasina’s opposition to the construction of the Jamuna Bridge could not prevent Begum Zia from initiating constructing other bridges in Bangladesh. Her government declared the date to lay the foundation stone of the second bridge, the Karnaphuli Bridge in Chittagong on April 19, 2006. Sheikh Hasina, to disrupt the project, instructed her party men to impose a general strike in Chittagong on the scheduled day.
Such undesirable behavior of Sheikh Hasina proves that she always directly or indirectly hindered all the development projects of the Begum-led government. But, she did not hesitate to claim the credit for those developmental works as her own achievements, which started during Begum Zia’s period, and later ended in her government.
The Daily Star stated on December 15, 2011: “JICA made (finished) a pre-feasibility study in 2004 for construction of the Padma Bridge at four possible sites: (1) Paturia-Goalondo, (2) Dohar-Char Vadrasan, (3) Mawa-Jajira and (4) Chandpur-Vedarganj. The study rejected the Chandpur-Vedarganj site because of its distant location. JICA said that both the Paturia- Goalondo and Mawa- Jajira sites were economically viable.”
The BNP government endorsed the JICA study and declared that the Padma Bridge shall be constructed at Mawa- Jajira point. After that declaration by the government, people on the Paturia- Goalondo route began disrupting it and demanded that the bridge be built near them. In response, the BNP government declared that it would later construct another bridge closer to them.
The BNP government finally accepted the JICA suggestion to construct the Padma Bridge at Mawa-Jajira point. Accordingly, on May 15 of 2005, the then PM of Bangladesh Begum Khaleda Zia, at a rally held at Shibchar of Madaripur, declared the construction of the first Padma Bridge at Mawa-Jajira site. On the same day, she also reiterated her pledge to construct the second Padma Bridge at Paturia-Goyalanda site.
To procure financial and technical assistance, Begum Zia, on July 12, 2005 went to Japan on a 4 day visit and got a positive response from the Japanese government and later got assurances from the World Bank (WB), the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and other development partners and signed the Frame Work Agreement to provide loans to Bangladesh for constructing the bridge. The World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB), and JAICA formed a Consortium. The World Bank agreed to provide a $1.2 billion loan with nominal interest of 1.75%. On the other hand, ADB agreed to provide $615 million, JAICA $400 million, and IDB $140 million. Bangladesh was supposed to provide $617 million from its own funds.
The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) of Bangladesh in 2006 placed a proposal of $1,744.69322 million for the Padma Bridge Construction project. Begum Zia, considering and comparing the cost of the contemporary mega-bridges of that time, suggested to ECNEC to limit the expenditure within the margin of $1,543.91109 million when $1 was equal to Tk 68.78.
On the basis of the pre-feasibility study, the Begum Zia government appointed consultants to prepare the design and other required documents, and started the process of acquiring land in 2006. But unfortunately, due to the emergence of the 1/11 crisis, the BNP had no scope to take further steps to construct the Padma Bridge.
Subsequently, during the Army-backed emergency government, ECNEC finally approved $1,477.31898, which was close and logical to the amount that the Begum Khaleda Zia government approved in 2006.
A genuine question surfaced as why how $ 1,477.31898 approved by the Fakhruddin-led caretaker government, leaped to $4,389.79358 millions while the final expenditure would stand at $5706.01919 million.
People want to know why the cost of the Padma Bridge became 4 to five times higher than the money approved by the Army-backed government of Fakruddin Ahmed. Knowledgeable sources strongly believe it occurred due to sky-high corruption of the Sheikh Hasina government, the Awami League.
Sheikh Hasina repeatedly extended the time and allocated money. It was declared to be completed by 2018, but the construction was delayed to mid 2022. More allocation of money and extension of time resulted in massive corruption.
The vastness of corruption comes to the forefront if one compares the per kilometer construction cost of the Padma Bridge to three bridges of two neighboring countries of Bangladesh such as India and China.
The Padma Bridge opened in 2022, the Rajeev Gandhi Bridge (India) in 2015, the Hunzu Bay Bridge (China) in 2008 and the Bhupen Hazarika Bridge (India) in 2017. The per km construction costs of these four bridges were as follows:
-The Padma Bridge: $535.04 million
-The Rajeev Gandhi Bridge:P $7.38 million
-The Hangzhou Bay Bridge: $41.86 million
-The Bhupen Hazarika Bridge: $35.78 million.
When I talked to pro-Hasina supporters, they claimed that the construction cost of the Padma Bridge increased due to the devaluation of the Bangladeshi currency. But reality does not justify their explanation. In 2006, when Begum Zia initiated the Padma Bridge Project, $1 was equal to Tk 68.78. In 2011 $1= Tk 70.18, whereas on January 1, 2015, $1= Tk 78.09. On the inaugural day, July 25, 2022 $1=Tk 94.42. So, how did the cost inflate 4 to 5 times higher compared to that of the project cost of 2006?
It is a pity that Sheikh Hasina, during her inaugural address of the Padma Bridge, did not even mention the name of Begum Khaleda Zia, though she was the dreamer and initiator of this bridge. She did not even mention the name of the Advisor of the Army-backed emergency government, Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed, who laid the foundation stone of the bridge in 2007 at Mawa-Jajira points. It must be mentioned that it was Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed, who, in 2008, installed Sheikh Hasina to power on behalf of her foreign masters.
Sheikh Hasina is the distorter of the entire history of Bangladesh. Her steps signal she will never leave power and will adamantly hold on to it to establish a hereditary, autocratic regime like that of North Korea, so that her corrupt laws and all the anti-Bangladesh treaties and agreements signed with her foreign backers remain valid indefinitely.
*The writer is a New York-based journalist and researcher. He has also fought in the Bangladesh War of Liberation.
August 4, 2022
The viewpoints expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect the opinions, viewpoints and editorial policies of Aequitas Review.
