A loan agreement was signed of 81.49 Corer dollars has been signed with Exim Bank of South Korea for the construction project of rail-cum-road bridge of Bangladesh Railway over Karnaphuli river at Kalurghat. The project titled ‘Construction of Railway cum Road Bridge across the River Karnaphuli’ at Kalurghat Point will be implement by Bangladesh Railway.
Two loan agreements were signed between several Bangladeshi and South Korean agencies at the NEC conference room in Sherbangla Nagar of the capital Dhaka on Thursday.
According to the project director, the total project cost for the construction of the bridge has been fixed at TK 11 thousand 560 crores. Of this, Korea Exim Bank’s loan assistance is TK 8,200 crore. The remaining TK 3360 crores will be given by the Bangladesh government.
The Project Director (PD) of Bangladesh Railway’s Joydevpur Ishwari Rail Project and Kalurghat Railway New Bridge Project, Engineer Golam Mostafa told that a loan agreement of 81 crore 49 lakh 10 thousand dollars with Korea Exim Bank for the construction of Kalurghat Bridge, the amount in Bangladeshi Taka 8 thousand 2 Croer has been signed.
The total cost of construction of the bridge will be 11 thousand 560 crores. Remaining Tk 3,360 crore will be spent from GOB fund.
Engineer Golam Mostafa told reporter that for tender processing , the project documents will be taken up in ECNEC after July 15. And the approximate time to call tender will be July 2025 and the main work on the bridge will begin in January 2026.
On behalf of the Government of Bangladesh, Shahriar Quader Siddiqui Secretary of the Department of Economic Relations, and M r. Wun Shi Chung Chairman & CO of Exim Bank of Korea on behalf of South Korea signed the loan agreement.
Abul Hasan Mahmud Ali, Finance Minister, Jillul Hakim Railway Minister, Wasika Ayesha Khan State Minister of Finance, Korean Ambassador to Bangladesh Park Yong-Sik, Railway Ministry Secretary Dr. Md. Humayun Kabir and senior railway officials including the Secretary of the Roads Department of the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges were also present.
It was informed in the event that this project will be implemented in the period from 2024 to 2030.
Uninterrupted rail and road connectivity will be ensured by constructing a rail-cum-road bridge over the Karnaphuli river at Kalurghat point.
According to the project concept, upshot of the project will be the operational limitations of Chattogram-Cox’s Bazar rail corridor will be removed and comprehensive economic development will be achieved by increasing intra-regional trade facilities and improving the living standards of local residents.
After the construction of the bridge, around 15 thousand vehicles will ply through this bridge. Bangladesh Railway has targeted to operate 20 pairs of trains daily from Chattogram to Cox’s Bazar. As a result, an estimated 10 million people will directly benefit from the construction of the Kalurghat Rail-cum-Road Bridge Project.
Since 1993, the Korea Exim Bank has been providing flexible loans to various priority development projects of Bangladesh through the Korea Exim Bank.
the interest rate of loan agreement under EDCF fund in this project is 0.01 percent. The loan repayment period is 15 years 5 months.
