A total of 20,000 vehicles crossed the Padma Bridge from Mawa and Janjira points on the routes between Dhaka and 21 south and south-western districts in the first 10 hours after its opening for traffic on Sunday.

Among the vehicles that crossed the bridge, 60.53 per cent were motorcycles, said Bangladesh Bridge Authority executive engineer Mahmudur Rahman.

He also said that the estimation made by the feasibility study conducted for the Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project was exceeded in number of vehicles crossing the bridge in first 10 hours.

Feasibility study was finalized by Japan International Cooperation Agency from 2003 to 2005.

As per the feasibility study, estimation was made that 19,703 vehicles would cross the river a day in 2022.  

Mahmudur Rahman said that around 20,000 vehicles crossed the bridge from both the ends between 6:00am and 4:00pm on Sunday and 60.53 per cent of them were motorcycles.

‘We are estimating that 35,000 to 40,000 vehicles will cross the bridge in 24 hours today,’ he said.

BBA executive engineer Tofazzal Hossain said that 15,202 vehicles crossed the bridge from both the ends between 6:00am and 2:00pm and they had collected Tk 82,19,250 as tolls from these vehicles.

Tofazzal said that 8,440 vehicles, out of which around 60 per cent or 4,966 ones were motorcycles, crossed the bridge from Mawa point during the time and Tk 46,89,750 was collected as tolls.

During the same time, 6,762 vehicles crossed the bridge from Janjira point and Tk 35,29,500 was collected as tolls, he said.

The Padma Bridge was opened for vehicular movement from Sunday 6:00am.

People went to and crossed the bridges on buses, cars and motorcycles in a festive mood on the first day of vehicular movement on the bridge.