Jumbangla Desk: The daily suffering of lakhs of people of Chittagong's Boalkhali is finally getting eased. The Kalurghat Bridge over the Karnaphuli River was closed to traffic for more than a year due to renovation work. With the completion of that work, after about 15 months, on Sunday (October 27) from 10 a.m., cars will run from the city over that bridge.
Kalurghat Bridge
Traffic has been kept open on an experimental basis. Railways are not charging any toll. All types of vehicles with a maximum height of 8 feet will be able to ply. But heavy vehicles like trucks and buses cannot run.
Earlier, on August 1, 2023, the railways started renovation work on the dilapidated and expired Kalurghat Bridge for the movement of heavy trains. Max Infrastructure Limited was given responsibility for the overall renovation work of the bridge in 8 months at a cost of 43 crore rupees. On 16 June 2023, the bridge was supposed to be ready for train traffic within 3 months and for people and all types of vehicles within 8 months. But the contractor took more than 16 months to complete the movement of vehicles. Among them, train movement on Dhaka-Chittagong-Cox's Bazar route officially started on November 12, 2023 through the bridge.
Railway Eastern General Manager said that 100% of the work has been completed for traffic through the bridge. Nazmul Islam. He said, 'Kalurghat Bridge will be opened for traffic for the time being without toll. However, according to Buet's advice, big trucks and buses will not be able to cross the bridge. Lands Department will soon invite open tenders for collection of toll from vehicles plying on railway bridges.'
However, after the fall of the Awami League government on August 5, people and vehicles started to cross the bridge unofficially under the changed circumstances. However, as the road renovation work was not completed 100%, traffic was temporarily stopped due to the need of the contractor.
After traffic stoppage in 2023, the Roads and Public Ways Department started a ferry service to travel to Boalkhali upazila through Karnaphuli river. Although traffic has started on Kalurghat bridge, the ferry service for heavy vehicles will continue, said the land department of Railways.
Originally, the construction of the new railway line between Dohazari and Cox's Bazar had reached its final stage, but as the new bridge was not constructed, the railway took the initiative to rehabilitate the old Kalurghat bridge. The Kalurghat Bridge, built by the Assam Bengal Railway in 1931 during the British period, has long since expired. The bridge was renovated on Buet's advice. The Railways has made special designs for walkways and road carpeting on the railway tracks for the movement of people, including putting sand under the water of the bridge piers through about 60,000 geo bags under the water of the bridge piers for heavy and high speed trains. The railway authorities said that there will be no disruption to one-way traffic due to the implementation of the new system.
At present, three pairs of trains and trains carrying fuel from Dohazari Power Plant run daily to Cox's Bazar through Kalurghat Bridge. However, after renovation of Kalurghat bridge and construction of new bridge over Karnaphuli river, there are plans to run 23 pairs of trains daily on this route. Railways is planning to add a few more trains to Cox's Bazar in the working time table of the railway which will be launched next January.
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Due to political instability and bad weather, it took some time to complete the work of traffic on the bridge, said the project director of the contracting company Max Infrastructure Limited. Mehdi Hasan. He said, ``According to the contract, we completed the work of train movement through Kalurghat bridge within the month of November. But due to political unrest, adverse weather conditions, it took some time to complete the vehicle movement. 100% of the surface of the bridge will be opened on Sunday. However, the work of installing geo bags with sand at the bottom of the river will start in the next winter season.
