Kathmandu,

June26,

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has inaugurated the country’s longest bridge, which took eight years to build and was plagued by delays, political conflict, high costs and graft allegations.

The nearly 6.2 km road-rail four- lane bridge over the mighty Padma river is expected to directly impact the lives of at least 30 million people of the country, according to the government's estimates. The bridge connect India directly to Dhaka, through road, rail and ports.

With a construction cost of $3.87bn, this is one of the largest mega projects Bangladesh has ever undertaken and the entire amount is financed by the Bangladesh government.

In 2012, the World Bank withdrew from a $1.2bn loan agreement for the project following allegations of corruption. Following suit, other donors, including Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), also pulled out of the project.