Padma Bridge was first approved in August 2007 at an estimated cost of Taka 101.62 billion and the project deadline was 2015. By June 2011, the project cost had increased to Tk 205.07 billion.
The government revised the project cost to 297.93 billion taka in February 2015, and set a deadline of 2018. In June 2018 the cost increased by 14 billion taka for additional land acquisition purposes and after a special approval the total project cost was set at 300.93 billion taka. Finally, the cost was fixed at Tk 326.05 billion in 2023.
Regarding the additional cost of river training, Shamsul Haq, a mega project expert and civil engineering professor at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), told Prothom Alo that doing river training in a river like Padma is a complex task. , but 17 percent variation is too high.
He said that recently there has been a trend to show major changes in large projects and in many cases the cost has been increased by adding unnecessary work; These works were completed through subcontractors with political influence. As a result, project costs increase and the quality of work falls, but the Government's Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) has the opportunity to work with more responsibility for this purpose, he said.