Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA) expects to recover the Padma Bridge’s construction cost in the next 35 years through a ‘well-calculated’ toll rate, officials said.
“The toll rate has been fixed in a calculated way so the construction cost of the country’s biggest bridge could be recovered in the next 35 years,” a BBA official said.
The official said the bridge was constructed with domestic financing, discarding foreign loans or grants, reports BSS.
The finance ministry provided BBA with an amount of Tk 300.00 billion as credit. The BBA will have to repay the amount with a one per cent interest rate in 35 years.
“We will have to repay the loan with one per cent loan in 140 quarterly instalments,” the official said adding that the toll rate was fixed also considering the issues of the VAT and tax, the bridge’s management and maintenance alongside the occasional river training.
A BBA statement later substantiated his remarks saying an additional amount of Tk 3.40 billion would be repaid against the loan of Tk 2.11 billion taken during the design framing of the mega-structure.
It said the vehicle operators using the bridge would have to pay on an average 50 per cent more than the fare they used to pay for ferry transportation.
Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) earned Tk 56.0 million in November 2020 from vehicles that it ferried between Mawa and Jajira. The BBA took the figure as one of the baselines in fixing the Padma Bridge’s toll expecting to collect Tk 86.5 million monthly.
“But this is an initial estimation for now and the amount is not enough to realise the construction and subsequent maintenance costs in 35 years,” Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project’s director Md. Shafiqul Islam said.
He added that the vehicular movements would be enhanced and the toll rate would be re-fixed from time to time as well in the coming years to realise the expected amount as happened in the case of Bangabandhu Bridge.
BBA officials said Bangabandhu Bridge by now realised the construction cost before the expected timeline.
According to a Detailed Economic and Financial Analysis by a project consultant firm in 2010, the monthly toll collection will eventually stand at Tk 1.34 billion and annually at Tk 16.04 billion in incoming years.
The 35-year loan repayment schedule under the agreement between the Finance Division and the BBA, Tk 5.97 billion will have to be paid in the first year of launching vehicular movements through the bridge, which would be increased up to Taka 14.75 billion annually.
The government issued a gazette notification on May 17, 2022, fixing the toll rates for the Padma Bridge, which is scheduled to open for the traffic movements on June 25.
According to the notification, Tk 100 will be realised as the toll rate for a motorcycle, Tk 750 for a car and a jeep, Tk 1,200 for a pickup van, Tk 1,300 for a microbus, Tk 1,400 for a small bus (31-seat), Tk 2,000 for a medium bus.
Tk 1,600 has been fixed for a small truck (up to 5 tonnes), Tk 2,100 for a medium truck (5-8 tonnes) and Tk 2,800 for a truck weighing 8-11 tonnes, Tk 5,500 for a truck (up to three-axle), Tk 6,000 for a trailer (four-axel).
The notification also said that Tk 1,500 will be added to Tk 6,000 for each extra axel of a trailer over four-axel ones.