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Wednesday | May 13, 2026 | Dhaka

6 months of Padma Bridge: Tk 409cr toll collected

 New Nation
 Published: 12:00 AM, 06 January 2023

Staff Reporter :
The government earned Tk 409 crore as revenue from the vehicles that crossed the Padma Bridge till Tuesday (January 3, 2023).
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina formally inaugurated the bridge on June 25, 2022 and it was opened to traffic the next morning.
According to the Bangladesh Bridges Authority (BBA), a total of Tk 409, 87,10,150 toll was is collected from the 28,35,941 vehicles that crossed the bridge during the period.
At present, on average 14,718 vehicles are crossing the Padma Bridge daily and Tk 2.12 crore collected daily. If this trend continues, tolls of around Tk 800 crore may be collected by the end of 2023.
So far the number of daily traffic is less than forecast of about nine thousand.
By the year-end, the income may also be lower than forecast by Tk 800 crore. According to BBA sources, the target of monthly toll collection target from Padma Bridge has been set at Tk 133.66 crore and the yearly collection target is Tk 1,603 crore.
Kazi Md. Ferdaus, Chief Engineer of BBA, said that they are collecting toll on Padma Bridge as per the target. If the current value of toll collecting continues, there will be no problem to reach the target. However, the toll collection depends on the number of vehicles crossing through the bridge.
The BBA is supposed to pay off the loan taken from the government for the construction of Padma Bridge. At the same time, it will accommodate the maintenance cost of the bridge from the collection.
The bridge authority will pay Tk 36,000 crore (with interest) in 35 years to the Bangladesh government.
According to the BBA, the Padma Multipurpose Bridge (PMB), the country’s biggest self-financed mega project, was built at a cost of Tk 30,193,39 crore with the funding of the Bangladesh government. BBA takes this entire amount as a loan from the government. According to clause 2 of the agreement, the loan amount is to be repaid in 140 installments in 35 years with 1 per cent interest per annum after the completion of the project. Apart from this, Tk 211 crore was taken at the time of composition of PMB’s design. BBA has to pay Tk 340 crore to the government for the loan taken against the design preparation.