WB Congratulates Bangladesh on Padma Bridge Completion

Mercy Miyang Tembon, the Bangladesh country director for the World Bank, has congratulated Bangladesh on the completion of the Padma Bridge and noted that the bridge will improve the nation's prosperity and the standard of living for its citizens, reports media.

“We recognise the importance and economic benefits of this bridge. This is a very important bridge for the people of Bangladesh, we are very happy that the bridge is complete. So congratulations to Bangladesh”, she told reporters while attending the inaugural ceremony of the Padma Bridge on Saturday.

She also noted that, as a long-term development partner of Bangladesh, the World Bank recognises that the Padma Bridge will bring multidimensional benefits to the people and economy of the country.

“It (the bridge) is going to create jobs, and it will reduce the time for taking the produce from farms to the markets, and people will have prosperity and improve their livelihood. This is a very important and economically beneficial bridge to Bangladesh,” she said.

Mercy expressed her hopes for continued support for Bangladesh. “We should be looking forward, not backwards.”

The World Bank had backtracked on its commitment to co-finance the Padma Bridge project, alleging corruption in the project and filing a case in 2012.

In a sequel to that, a Canadian court ruled that the World Bank’s corruption allegations were all false, fabricated, and baseless.

Later, the Awami-League government decided to complete the project at a cost of Tk 30,193.39 crore with almost 100 per cent internal funding, which is believed to open up a new horizon in the country's economy by connecting 21 southwestern districts through roads and railways with Dhaka and the northern parts of Bangladesh.