The 33rd span of the Padma Bridge was installed on Monday bringing a total of over 4.9 kilometres of the structure into view.

Construction work of the 6.15 kilometres long bridge has started in December 2014.

The span was installed on pillar no. 3 and 4 at Mawa point, more than a week after the last one had been installed.

Executive engineer, bridge Dewan Md Abdul Quader confirmed the matter and said the span had been locked with a crane ship at Mawa construction jetty and had already been shifted to 3 and 4 no. pillars, some 900 meters away from the jetty.

All of the 41 spans were supposed to be installed within the first week of October but the work was delayed due to the turbulent current and water level rise of the Padma River during monsoon, he said.

Earlier, the span installation work of the bridge was suspended for four months from June when the 31st span was installed as rainy season and heavy current in the river hampered the construction works in schedule time.

The official, however, said that more two spans would also to be set up on the pillars—34th and 35th pillar will be installed on October 25 and October 30 respectively.

Altogether 81.5% of the bridge construction has reached completion so far. As of September 30, Tk 23,796.24 crore had been spent in the project and authorities currently estimate that the total cost would reach Tk 30,193.39 crore.

Sinohydro Corporation of China has been awarded the work of two of the five major components of the project, including river training works, while China Major Bridge Engineering Construction Company was awarded the contract for constructing the bridge.