The Kanchpur, Meghna and Gumti second Bridges Construction and Existing Bridges Rehabilitation

Bridges along the economic artery of Bangladesh repaired, reinforced, and supplemented with second bridges despite project pauses due to terrorism.

The Meghna Bridge, built in 1991, and the Gumti Bridge (1995), were originally built by Japan as grant aid to develop National Highway No. 1 as a crucial economic conduit for Bangladesh. Along with the Kanchpur Bridge, built in 1977 with World Bank funds, they have been repaired and reinforced following decades of heavy use. At the same time, second bridges have been built alongside the bridges to improve capacity.

The construction commenced in January 2016, but unfortunately, in July 2016, a terrorist attack in Dhaka killed several people from Bangladesh, India, Italy and Japan, forcing a temporary suspension of the construction in order to improve safety measures in the final designs.

With the support of the Japanese and Bangladesh Governments, embassies, and JICA, as well as the efforts of the employer, contractor and consultant, the project was still completed and opened to traffic earlier than the contract period envisioned.

After the opening, traffic congestion on this section of National Highway No. 1 was eliminated and journey times reduced by around 1.5 hours, providing a significant economic opportunity for the country.