Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project

11 Economic Assessment11.1 Introduction1. The Padma Multipurpose Bridge will provide a vital missing link in the national road network ofBangladesh, particularly for the southwest part of the country. The bridge will support development inan area that has till date been poorly serviced by the road network, thereby reducing transport costsand inducing additional trips that would have previously thought it too expensive to make the trip.2. The benefits of the Project will include:The bridge will provide significant travel time savings to the traffic in the corridor, particularlybetween the Dhaka to the southwest of Bangladesh and possibly onto India. These traveltime savings are expected to be of the order of 2 hours for cars and bus to 10+ hours fortrucks when the bridge is operational by 2014.The construction and operation of the Padma Bridge, will result in significant economicbenefits to the southwest region, in the form of increased production, goods and services;relocation and generation of new economic activities.Increased economic activity and consumption expenditure will lead to poverty alleviation inKhulna and Barisal Divisions.3. A detailed economic assessment of the Project was carried out by the Design Consultant andpresented in ‘Detailed Economic and Financial Analysis’ Report dated 11 February 2010. TheEconomic and Financial Analysis Report provides an input to aid design, construction, finance,operation and maintenance of the bridge. A transport model to forecast traffic volumes and revenuesof the Padma Bridge was developed in which macroeconomic tools such as Social Accounting Matrix(SAM) for computing regional benefits outside the transport sector were used. This Chapter provides asummary of the economic and financial analysis of the project.11.2 Project Costs11.2.1 Overall Project Costs4. Detailed cost estimates of the various Project components are given in the ‘Project CostEstimates’ Report submitted by the Design Consultant on 8th April 2010. A summary cost estimate isgiven in Table 11-1.Table 11-1: Project Cost Estimates for Input to Economic EvaluationProjectFinal SchemeComponentUSD million1. Construction CostMain Bridge 907.5Services on the Main Bridge 41.4Approach Roads 131.6Road Viaducts 60.5Rail Viaducts 7.8Rail Facilities 36.8Bridge End Facilities 68.3River Training Works 597.4Ferry Route Adjustment 8.0Construction Yards 57.5Total Construction Cost 1916.82. Engineering CostConstruction Supervision 46.43. Administration CostConstruction supervision 4.611-1