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   DHAKA, March 17, 2025 (BSS) – The newly constructed Jamuna Railway Bridge is set to open for regular train movements on March 18, linking the northwestern region with Dhaka and rest of the country through railway tracks, officials today said.

   “The stage is set to open the bridge at 10am tomorrow. Trains from both directions will pass through the bridge from then on,” project director of the bridge Al Fattah M Masudur Rahman told BSS here today.

   He said trains were movement on the 4.8 km long double track dual gauge bridge on trial basis from February 12, using one of the two lanes of the bridge.
   
    The bridge is built on 50 pillars and 49 spans with state-of-the-art steel technology confirming 100 years of durability while Rahman called the structure a “testament to Bangladesh’s progress”.
 
   The inaugural ceremony will be held at Ibrahimabad station on the east side of the bridge at 10am with railways ministry secretary M Fahimul Islam joining the event along with Japanese ambassador in Dhaka Saida Shinichi and Japan’s overseas development agency JICA’s Director General for South Asia Ito Teruyuki .

   Bangladesh Railway Director General M Afzal Hossain will chair the function.

   As part of the programme, guests and concerned persons onboard the inaugural train will cross the bridge from East Ibrahimabad Station to Sayedabad Railway Station on the western end of Sirajganj at 11:20 am and then return to the East end of the Ibrahimabad Railway Station at 12:00 noon.

   Ahead of the formal opening the Silk City Express train from Rajshahi reached Dhaka crossing the Jamuna Rail Bridge with passengers onboard for the first time February 12.

   But the bridge went through its test run earlier when a train crossed it at a speed of 120 kph.

     The new dedicated railway bridge is located 300 metres upstream of the Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge and the structure would enable authorities to run 88 trains through the country’s longest railway bridge at high speeds.

   Since opening of the Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge in 1998 some 38 trains used to cross daily relatyively in a slow speed connecting the central part of Bangladesh including Dhaka with north, northwestern, southern and southwestern regions.

  "Trains will take short time to cross the Jamuna Rail Bridge than before. This will save time on both sides," Bangladesh Railway Director General Afzal Hossain said.

   Railway officials said the government decided to construct the dedicated railway bridge in 2020 while its foundation stone was laid on November 29 of the same year.

   The structure was built at a cost of Tk. 16,780.96 crore, 72.4 percent of which was provided by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) as loan while the government provided the rest of the amount.

    Japan’s OTG and IHI constructed the bridge as a joint venture project.

   The bridge required 7.667 kilometres of approach embankment and loop and 30.73 kilometres of railway tracks.

   The bridge’s project director said train passengers using the 4.8-kilometer-long bridge would have to pay additional money as pontage charge, which is realized in the Padma Bridge as well.

   Railway authorities prepared a route-based fare chart under which fares would be increased by a minimum of Tk. 45 and up to a maximum of Tk. 160, depending on the class of the train seats for the realization of the pontage charge.