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]]>A total 42,199 vehicles crossed the bridge and highest Tk 3.18 crore tolls have been received during the period, said Ahsan Masud Bappy, an executive engineer of the site office of the Bangladesh Bridge Authority.
Talking to our Tangail correspondent, the executive engineer also said that setting a record, the toll plaza had received Tk 2.99 crore from a record 52,730 vehicles on May 13 before the last Eid-ul Fitr.
Although the number of vehicles crossing the bridge in the last 24 hours is less than last year, the received amount of tolls set a record as the number of heavy vehicles cross the bridge is higher this time while rates of toll for vehicles were increased than that of last year, he said.
Last year, long-distance transport movement remained suspended due to coronavirus but a huge number of private cars, microbuses, trucks, pick-up vans and motorcycles plied the bridge, the engineer said.
Vehicles bound for 16 northern and five south-western districts run on Jamuna Bridge.
The engineer said around 15,000 vehicles cross the bridge in a day normally but the numbers of vehicles go up to 40,000 to 50,000 during Eid period.
– With The Daily Star input
The post Tk 3.18 crore toll collections recorded in 24 hours at Bangabandhu Bridge appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.
]]>The post 23yrs more needed to clear Bangabandhu Bridge debts appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.
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It will take at least 23 years more to clear the liabilities the country owes to multilateral lenders who gave loans for constructing the Bangabandhu Multipurpose Bridge across the Jamuna River.An annual payment of Tk 1.50 billion in principal and interest to the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank will have to continue up to 2034 to pay off the debts, reveals an internal audit report of Bangladesh Bridge Authority.
The BBA, which was established a couple of years back to look after the Bangabandhu Bridge and the proposed Padma Multipurpose Bridge, makes the payment to the ADB and the World Bank, the two major lenders of the multi-million dollar Bangabandhu Bridge.
Communications ministry officials fear that it might take even longer to repay the debts if the authority cannot increase income from bridge tolls and pay higher amount of instalments which, they said, the country will have to.
In a letter to Finance Minister AMA Muhith, Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain said the existing rate of 2 percent tolls will be doubled from 2014-15.
Bangladesh Bridge Authority has already drawn plans to raise the income from the bridge by enhancing the toll rates by 40 percent this year, 80 percent in 2016 and 100 percent in 2021.
It said it will not face any problem maintaining the liabilities if the toll plan could be implemented.
Its officials said they are waiting for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to approve the new toll rates.
Commissioned in 1998, Bangabandhu Bridge still stands as the country’s largest infrastructure.
As per the deals struck with the lenders almost two decades ago, Bangladesh will need over Tk 3 billion to maintain the debt service liability to them.
The country spent $962 million (Tk 37.45 billion as per the dollar-taka exchange rate during the 1990s) to construct the rail-road bridge earlier known as Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge.
The ADB and the World Bank provided more than 45 percent of the construction cost. The remaining was funded by Bangladesh government and donors like Japan.
A substantial portion of the total government funding was collected from levies imposed on people.
The 4.8km bridge brought the less developed northern part into the country’s mainstream economy.
Bangabandhu Bridge tolls have remained unchanged for the last 13 years.
Courtesy of Daily Sun
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