Bangladesh marks opening of country’s longest bridge

DHAKA: Bangladesh on Saturday opened an important and longest 6.51-km bridge near the capital Dhaka after a long construction plagued by delays, graft allegations, and even deadly lynchings sparked by rumours of human sacrifice.

The inauguration of the Padma Multipurpose Bridge -- now officially the country’s longest -- caps a key infrastructure goal by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the nearly eight years since construction began.

It ends an economic bottleneck that required freight destined for the country’s poverty-stricken south and the Indian megacity of Kolkata to be slowly ferried over the Padma river, a major tributary of the mighty Ganges.

"This bridge is not just bricks, cement, iron, and concrete," Hasina told a crowd of nearly a million people who had gathered along the river’s banks for its opening ceremony. "This bridge is our pride, a symbol of our capacity, strength and dignity," the leader added.

Bangladesh financed the $3.87-billion project itself after corruption allegations saw the World Bank and other lenders withdraw finance.

Canadian engineering firm SNC-Lavalin was banned from bidding on World Bank projects for a decade after it was accused of bribing officials over the project.

Prosecutors in Canada eventually declined to pursue corruption charges against company executives after a court ruled some wiretap evidence against them was inadmissible.

Engineers said building challenges for the project were "immense" as siltation left the bottom of the Padma river unstable, making it difficult to place spans and helping blow out the bridge’s finish date by four years.