On their day off yesterday, 58 secretaries of different ministries and divisions met at the Padma bridge site in Munshiganj, breaking

The government is going to establish a full-blown cantonment on both sides of the Padma Bridge to ensure security to the largest ever structure to be built in the country.

River erosion strikes Padma bridge construction site at Kumarbhog in Munshiganj and broke away large parts of land this morning – damaging a jetty and some other equipment.

The Bridges Division has revised the cost of the much-hyped Padma Bridge project by 40 percent, raising the estimated cost to Tk 28,793 crore.

Transparency International Bangladesh Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman has been awarded the first Global Partnership for Social

China has offered Bangladesh soft loans of $15-20 billion to help it expand railway networks across the country. Officials of the Chinese embassy in Dhaka placed the loan proposal at a high-level meeting with Bangladesh officials at the Prime Minister's Office in January, railways ministry sources told The Daily Star.

The Padma bridge project will give a boost to local steel, cement, stone and sand industries as the biggest-ever infrastructure project of the country will source many of the construction materials locally.

The construction work of Padma Multipurpose Bridge seems to be going on at a good pace. About 16 percent of the infrastructure work of the project, including approach roads, rehabilitation and development of the project area, is complete, according to ministry data.

The government has decided to build a new cantonment at the Padma Bridge project site and the army has sought Tk 1,774 crore over four years to build the security installations for the bridge.

The government yesterday entered a Tk 383.15 crore deal with a joint venture of six companies for the supervision consultancy job of the Padma bridge project.

The deal was signed between Bridge Division under the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges and Korean Expressway group comprising seven companies at Bridge Bhaban at Mohakhali in Dhaka.

A Dhaka court today acquitted all the seven government officials including former bridges division secretary Mosharraf Hossain who were accused of corruption in the Padma bridge project, 53 days after Anti-Corruption Commission cleared them of the graft charges.

After the much-publicised Padma bridge episode, the World Bank has now realigned its approach to tackling corruption in projects.

The World Bank was provoked by the government's unabashed corruption. A certain minister managed to destroy a once-in-a-lifetime financing opportunity for the Padma bridge. It's time the government realized that its own actions brought disrepute to Bangladesh.

Chinese company Sinohydro Corporation, which has kept the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway Expansion project stalled for two years, may bag the Padma Bridge River Training Project by offering a questionably lower price. The Chinese company is supposed to be ineligible to take part in this massive tender as it is facing the World Bank's “early temporary suspension” for suspected wrongdoings. As per tender rule, the government is supposed to disqualify such a bidder. Sinohydro, Korean Hyundai and Belgian Jan De Nul submitted financial proposals to the Bridges Division on June 19 and evaluation of their bids is going on.

The bridges division has prepared a tight schedule to implement different components of the delayed Padma Bridge project at a faster rate.

The Padma bridge project has opened business opportunities for local manufacturers of construction materials, especially cement and rod.

The government yesterday struck a deal with China Major Bridge Engineering Company Ltd for the construction of the main part of Padma bridge.

THE Padma Multipurpose Bridge (PMB) project was designed to be funded by donors such as the WB, JICA, ADB etc. After a scandal of alleged corruption by some people associated with project preparation the WB withdrew its commitment and other donors followed.

The cabinet purchase committee today awarded the contract for the construction of the Padma bridge to a Chinese company.