Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina jointly inaugurated this week the 5.13km Rupsha Railway Bridge, a key component of the 64.7km Khulna-Mongla Port broad gauge project.

The Rupsha Railway Bridge is part of the Khulna-Mongla Port Railway Project under the Government of India Concessional Credit Line extended to Bangladesh. The bridge will help improve people-to-people contact and facilitate regional economic integration.

Both countries have made various efforts to improve connectivity by building rail and waterway links.

The 5.13 km wide single track railway bridge was built by Larsen & toubro. The total project (Khulna-Mongla Port Railway Project) will cost $388.92 million while the cost of Rupsha Bridge construction is $169.26 million.

The bridge construction involved a lot of technology and has features such as navigation pads upstream and downstream of the pier to ensure navigational safety in the river. The vertical clearance for the main bridge is more than 18 m above the Standard High Water Level (SHWL).

The bridge will significantly increase the connectivity of Mongla Port, the second largest port in Bangladesh, and be the alternative root of maritime.

It will also enable other countries in the region to use the port and stimulate sub-regional development.