On June 10, a track-laying ceremony was held for the Houtong section (Bangga to Jessore) of the Padma Bridge Railway Link in Bangladesh, which was constructed by CREC, marking that the Padma Bridge Railway Link Project has entered the final sprint stage and is expected to be completed in April next year.
The Padma Bridge Railway Link is about 170 kilometers long, starting from Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, passing through the Padma Bridge, and extending southwest to Jessore. It is a passenger and freight railway with a design speed of 120 kilometers per hour. The project is divided into three sections: the section from Dhaka to Mawa, the area from Mawa to Bangga, and the team from Bangga to Jessore. The track laying work of the first and second sections (i.e., the Dhaka to Bangga) has been completed. In April this year, the first train passed over the galloping Padma River as the first train smoothly crossed the Padma Bridge on the Pre-provisioned segments section (Mawa-Bangga section) of the Padma Bridge Railway Link.
As an essential part of the railway connection line of Padma Bridge, Padma Bridge is the largest and most significant single bridge project undertaken by Chinese enterprises overseas. The bridge is located in the lower reaches of the Padma River. The main bridge is a double-deck steel truss bridge for highways and railways with a length of 6.15 kilometers. The upper layer is a four-lane expressway, and the lower layer is a single-track railway. On June 25, 2022, after eight years of construction, the Padma Bridge was officially opened to traffic, ending the centuries-old history that people on both sides of the Padma River could only travel by ferry, so the bridge was cordially called the "Bridge of Dreams" by the people of Bangladesh.
