Seven Most-Awaited Megaprojects That Will Change Bangladesh Forever

Bangladesh is becoming a role model to the world for having a constant growth and reducing poverty. The whole country is developing day by day. New infrastructures and megaprojects are under construction all over the country. Today we are going to discuss about the seven most-awaited megaprojects of Bangladesh that is going to change Bangladesh forever.

Padma Multipurpose Bridge:

This is one of the most-awaited and biggest projects among the Megaprojects of Bangladesh . It is a multipurpose road-rail bridge across the Padma river. This project is under construction in Bangladesh with its resources. At first, World Bank committed to providing all the financial needs to complete the project. But due to the allegation of corruption by some people associated with this project, the World bank withdrew the commitment. Taking it as a challenge, Bangladesh starts the construction of this megaproject with its own money in 2014.

The project consists of 6,150 m of Main Bridge and 14 Km of river training works. The bridge will connect Lauhajang, and Munshiganj to Shariatpur and Madaripur, linking the country’s southwest to northern and eastern regions. The two-level steel truss bridge carries a four-lane highway on the upper level and a single track railway on the lower level. The bridge with 150.12 m (492.5 ft) long 41 spans. It has the total length of 6.150 km (3.821 mi), and 22.5 m (74 ft) width. This is the longest bridge in Bangladesh which is going to change the overall economy of the country.
This project will cost a total Tk of 30,193 crores. The Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the Padma bridge on 25 June 2022.

Dhaka Metro Rail:

Dhaka is the capital and the busiest city of Bangladesh. As we know, Dhaka city traffic is one of the heaviest in the world. To overcome the heavy traffic jam and congestion that occur throughout the entire city daily, the Bangladesh government planned a Mass Rapid Transit system together with a separate Light Rapid Transit system which is another Megaprojects of Bangladesh. Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA) outlined the whole transit system. This was a proposal of a total of 20-year long Strategic Transport Plan only for Dhaka City.

The MRT project is known as Dhaka Mass Rapid Transit Development Project, also known as Dhaka Metro Rail Project, which is another top meg-project in the country.

Bangladesh Government started the first metro rail line (Line-06) construction on 26 June 2016, costing $2.8 billion. JICA will fund the total cost of this project.
This Line-6 consists of 16 elevated stations. The total length of electricity-powered light rail tracks is 20.1 km. This Line will connect Uttara with Kamlapur with its metro network.
There’ll be another five lines of MRT in the future. It’ll cover the whole of Dhaka city under a Mass Transit System.

Dhaka Elevated Expressway:

Another megaprojects of Bangladesh is Dhaka Elevated Expressway project which will connect Shahzalal Airport (Kawla) with Kutubkhali via Banani, Mohakhali, Tejgaon, and Kamlapur to ease traffic congestion in Dhaka city. It’s Bangladesh’s first elevated expressway and one of the largest infrastructure projects in Bangladesh.
The total length of the expressway will be 46.73 km (153,300 ft) including the connecting roads. It is a Public-Private Partnership Project which will cost around ৳122 billion (US$1.4 billion).

The DEE Project involves the construction of a Four-lane main carriageway and one elevated link road, comprising: Four-lane dual main carriageway with a total length of 19.73 Km, a Four-lane dual-link road carriageway of a total length of 3.1 Km, 32 on-off ramps (One-lane carriageway of 5.5 m width) of a total length of 23.9 km, 8 toll plazas and 43 toll collection booths. Though funding problems halted the project several times before, now the construction works are now in progress at full speed with a plan of partial operation of the project from the Airport to the Tajgaon area.

Terminal 3: Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport Expansion Project:

On December 28, 2019, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the much-awaited construction work of another megaprojects of Bangladesh, “Third Terminal of Hazrat shahjalal International Airport” in Dhaka. This terminal aims at increasing the capacity of handling more passengers and cargo which will boost the overall country trade.

Currently, the annual passenger handling capacity of HSIA is 8 million.
The new terminal will increase this capacity by over 20 million which is more than double. The awaited third terminal will increase the cargo capacity of HSIA from 200,000 tonnes to 500,000 tonnes.
The total area of the three-storey terminal building will be 542,000 square meters, with a floor space of 230,000 square meters, 115 check-in counters, 64 departure, and 64 arrival immigration desks.
The whole project will cost BDT ৳21300 crore (US$2.5 billion). JICA funded a portion of the work in the form of loans. Bangladesh Government is expecting to complete the project by 2023.

Ruppur Nuclear Power Plant:

Bangladesh’s first nuclear power plant which is another megaprojects of Bangladesh ,now under construction at Ruppur, Pabna. The plant will be a 2.4 GWe nuclear power plant. Russian Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation is currently building the VVER-1200/523 Nuclear reactor and critical infrastructures, while a Bangladeshi company Max group, and an Indian company Hindustan Construction Company constructing the other non-critical infrastructures.
Russian Government gave 90% of the total budget of this project as loan to Bangladesh Government, which is $12.65 billion. The project personnels are planning to start operate the two units generating 2.4 GWe in 2023 and 2024.

Karnaphuli Tunnel:

Karnaphuli Tunnel is the first underwater expressway tunnel in South Asia which is now under construction in the port city of Chattogram, Bangladesh which will help to improve the Dhaka-Chittagong-Cox’s Bazar highway network. This tunnel is also known as Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Tunnel. The entire route of this project is 9.39 Km long while the tunnel is 3.32 km long with a diameter of 10.80 m. The estimated cost of the project is US$1.1B. The Exim Bank of China funded around half of the total cost. The inauguration program of this project’s construction site was held on 14 October 2017, where Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina along with Chinese President Xi Jinping were the chief guests. The project is expected to be open for all by 2022.

Matarbari Deep Sea-port:

Matarbari Port is an under-construction deep seaport at Matarbari in Maheshkhali Upazila of Cox’s Bazar District, which will be the first deep seaport and fourth seaport in Bangladesh. Before the government decided to turn Matarbari into a deep seaport, it was originally meant to be for Matarbari Coal-fired power plant. The government of Bangladesh planned to reduce pressure on the Port of Chittagong by building this deep seaport. The concerned authority planned to construct a 300 m long multipurpose terminal and one 460 m long container terminal with a navigation channel of 350 m long by 2026 in the first stage of construction.

A total area of 18 hectares will be used to build the container terminal with an annual capacity of 600,000 to 1.1 million TEU. There is a plan for expanding this container terminal area up to 70 hectares, including a 1,850 m berth having a capacity of 2.8 million TEU.
A multi-purpose terminal will also be introduced later on an area of 17 hectares with a 300 m long berth which will be able to accommodate vessels with up to 70,000 dwt. Its annual capacity will be 2.25 million tones.