Ruling party’s campaign to repeatedly publicize country’s recent developments, including Padma Bridge project, could now pay off in the next general election.

Bahauddin Foizee | Oped Column Syndication

A historic milestone for Bangladesh and now the longest bridge of the country, the newly-built Padma Multipurpose Bridge would now help grow Bangladesh’s GDP by 1.3% annually.

The US$ 3.86 billion worth mega-infrastructure was inaugurated on June 25 and is forecast to increase jobs, service sector activity and tourism in the country’s southwestern districts, connectivity to which were poor even a day before the opening of this bridge. This world’s deepest bridge, which is a 6.15-kilometre multipurpose road-rail bridge, carries a four-lane highway on the upper level and a single track railway on a lower level.

In one of its recent statements, Bangladesh’s foreign ministry clarified that the bridge is not a part of the China’s flagship Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and that it was entirely funded by Bangladesh, no foreign funds were taken.

It is worth noting that after the World Bank cancelled a US$1.2 billion credit in 2012, Bangladesh decided to build the bridge using its own fund. The decision was perhaps inspired by the government’s........

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