The bridge to be built across the Padma river will not be named after anyone, Communications Minister Obaidul Quader has said.
He said this at a rally at Shahid Minar in Dhaka on Monday, quashing the demand for naming Bangladesh’s longest proposed bridge after Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s wife and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s mother.
Hasina had conveyed her disapproval of the suggestion to him, he said.
Several MPs had pitched for naming the bridge after Fazilatunnesa in Parliament and outside, the minister said.
“There is not only emotion attached to it, logic is also behind (the naming the bridge after her).
“The great lady never behaved like a first lady; sacrificed throughout her life,” Quader said.
But, he added, “The prime minister and her sister Sheikh Rehana decided that the bridge would not be named after anybody but will be known simply as the Padma Bridge.
“The prime minister has told me about the decision herself,” he said.
Opposition Jatiya Party’s presidium member Kazi Firoz Rashid Chowdhury had suggested in Parliament recently that the bridge be named after Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib.
The construction of the bridge has been delayed because of complications that cropped up during the term of the previous Awami League government.
The project has, finally, been awarded to a Chinese company.
The 6.15-km bridge is expected to be completed by 2018.
Source: Bd news24