Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the second Kanchpur Bridge on the river Shitalakkhya on Saturday (Mar 16).

“The prime minister will open the four-lane bridge through a videoconference from her official Ganabhaban residence in the morning tomorrow,” Prime Minister’s Office sources said on Friday (Mar 15).

Through the videoconference, Sheikh Hasina will also inaugurate a four-lane flyover at Bhulta and a railway overpass at Latifpur on Dhaka-Sylhet Highway, the sources said.

The 400-metre long and 18-meter width 2nd Kanchpur bridge will reduce bottlenecks significantly on Dhaka-Chittagong Highway, Roads and Highway Department (RHD) officials said.

Japanese contractors Obayshi Corporation, Shimizu Corporation, JFE Engineer Corporation, and IHI Infra Systems Company Ltd started the constructions of the 2nd Kanchpur bridge along with the 2nd Meghna and 2nd Meghna-Gumti bridges on Dhaka-Chittagong Highway in January 2016.

The construction work of the 2nd Kanchpur bridge was completed nearly four months ahead of the June 2019 deadline, the RHD officials said.

They said the construction work of the 2nd Meghna and the 2nd Meghna-Gumti bridges has almost been finished and the bridges will be opened to the traffic soon.

The RHD officials hoped the three four-lane bridges alongside the existing Kanchpur, Meghna and Meghna-Gumti bridges will bring an end to sufferings of the passengers have been experiencing for years on the country’s busiest highway.