Two Meghna bridges under repairs
4-day off limit to vehicles starts today
Vehicular movement on two bridges -- Meghna and Meghna-Gumti -- on Dhaka-Chittagong Highway will remain suspended for four days from 6:00am today due to repair works on the bridges' damaged expansion joints and hinge bearings.
The detour for the Dhaka-Chittagong traffic is Dhaka-Bhairab-Brahmanbaria-Moinamati-Chittagong, an extra 90 kilometres.
Vehicles coming from Dhaka would be diverted towards Narsingdi from Kanchpur bridge while those from Chittagong would be diverted toward Brahmanbaria from Moinamati.
Both the bridges are under threat due to damage to the hinge bearings, expansion joints and river-bed scouring.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Railway, upon a communications ministry request, decided to introduce two pairs of special trains and add 11 extra coaches to the existing seven trains on Dhaka-Chittagong route to ease pressure on the road.
“We will run one pair of trains on Friday and another pair on Sunday,†said BR Director General Md Abu Taher.
Our Brahmanbaria correspondent, quoting the district administration, said 264 law enforcers will be deployed on the alternative route, with a three-member team posted in every half a kilometre on the Brahmanbaria-Moinamati highway.
Three special teams will be on duty in Sylhet, Brahmanbaria and Comilla.
The alternative route will have four wreckers and 12 Roads and Highways Department teams to ensure smooth flow of traffic while slow moving vehicles like human haulers, CNG-run auto-rickshaws and battery-driven rickshaws would be kept off it.
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