Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy posted a
photo of the two sisters on the bridge on Facebook on Friday. “Happy New Year
from the Padma Bridge. Joy Bangla! Joy Bangabandhu!” he wrote.
The daughters of Bangabandhu Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman travelled to the bridge around 7:30am by road, said Dewan Abdul
Quader, executive engineer of the project.
They got on the bridge by car from the
Mawa end and got off through the Zajira end.
Hasina and Rehana walked around two
kilometres on the bridge from pier No. 7 to pier No. 18. After reaching Zajira
around 8:30am, they had breakfast and then returned to the Mawa end at 10am.
They rode back to Dhaka through Dhaka-Mawa Expressway.
The prime minister’s personal assistant,
deputy commissioner of Munshiganj and other too officials were present.
After tension with the World Bank for a
long time over financing the project, Hasina in 2013 announced that Bangladesh
would build the bridge with its own funds.
She opened the construction in December
2015 and after five more years, the main structure linked the two sides of the
river.
Engineer Quader said the work to construct
the bridge has progressed 96 percent. The 6.15 kilometres bridge is expected to
open to public in June 2024 after the coating work ends.
