China set to complete Bangladesh’s largest rail link project connecting India

Despite concerns of the COVID-19 infection, Chinese workers continued to work night and day ensuring completion of Dhaka’s largest rail link project in stipulated time

New Delhi: While the world continues to wage battle against the relentless spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), China continues to live up to its industrious nature as it is set to complete Bangladesh’s largest rail link project in the coming days.

According to a report, Chinese engineers, who continue to work amid the COVID-19 outbreak, have successfully completed the construction work on the last pillar of the Padma bridge project.

The Padma river link project is Bangladesh’s largest railway project located 40 km south-west of Dhaka. The project – a six km-long bridge will link Dhaka to Kolkata, in West Bengal. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina-led government awarded the infrastructure project to China Major Bridge Engineering Company (CMBEC) in May 2014.

On Saturday morning, Chinese engineers completed the construction work of the last pillar of the bridge, the 3,140-ton span was placed on the pillars 20 and 21. With the installation of the 150-meter long span, the 28th span among the 41 spans has been installed on the 6.15 km bridge and 4,200 meters of the bridge is now visible.

“The construction firm has successfully installed 39 spans of the bridge. The remaining two spans are expected to leave China for Dhaka on 20 April. Arrangements are been made to receive and transport them here. The project will be completed within the deadline,” a government official said.

Despite concerns of the pandemic, Chinese workers continued to work atop the project day and night. 

The assurance to complete the project in the stipulated timeline was underlined by the Chinese Ambassador in Bangladesh Li Jiming. In March, Ambassador Jiming at a presser had said that thousands of Chinese engineers, technicians, and employees in Bangladesh did not choose to return to China. Instead, the Chinese workers continued to engage in the construction and production in Bangladesh, showing their dedication and hard labors to implement projects on time.

Jiming was reported saying that, they believe that the COVID-19 outbreak will not have a significant adverse impact on China’s large-scale production and operation activities in Bangladesh.

Government sources informed that ever since the outbreak of the COVID-19, officials of China Major Bridge Company Limited and Chinese Railway Engineering Corporation (CREC) took immediate measures.

“They adhered to the instructions and arrangements in relation to the prevention and control of the epidemic as issued by the Chinese government and higher officials. Thus, due to their quick thinking and emergency response measures not even a single case of COVID-19 infection was found in any worker or staff,” a government official said.

PM Hasina-led government awarded the contract to CMBEC, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the state-owned China Railway Group, one of the world’s largest construction firms, was the lone bidder for the project. Details of the project read that the company will build the core structure of the bridge for US$1.6 billion.