Staff Reporter :The government on Monday evening signed a Tk 8,707 crore deal with a Chinese company for the river training works of the Padma Bridge project.The river training works are the second most costly component of the $ 3 billion project. Padma Bridge project director Shafiqul Islam and deputy chief engineer of Sonohydra Corporation Ltd signed the deal on behalf of their respective sides at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in Dhaka.Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader, Bridges Division Secretary Khandaker Anwarul Islam and other senior officials of the government and the Chinese company were present. The bridge project is the first in the country, which will require more than $2 billion in foreign currency. The government decided to fund the project on its own after the World Bank cancelled its 1.2 billion loan for the project in 2012 on grounds of a corruption conspiracy over the appointment of supervisory consultant.The Padma Bridge is among the six projects that are under direct supervision of the Fast Track Project Monitoring Committee headed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
