‘Use sustainable technology to build bridges’

Speakers at a conference on Friday laid emphasis on using sustainable technologies for construction, use and maintenance of bridges across the country. They also stressed the need for exchange of knowledge among academicians, designers and officials of construction industry of the country for the development of bridge engineering. They came up with the comments at a two-day conference styled ‘Advances in Bridge Engineering-3’ organised by Bangladesh Group of International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering and Japan Society of Civil Engineers at a city hotel. Bashundhara Cement, a sister concern of the country’s leading business conglomerate Bashundhara Group, was the platinum sponsor of the event. Science and Technology Minister Yeafesh Osman inaugurated the conference as the chief guest while M Shamim Z Bosunia, president of Institution of Engineers Bangladesh, Prof Jamilur Reza Chowdhury, vice-chancellor of University of Asia Pacific, and Kei Toyama, a senior representative of JICA, spoke at the programme. Addressing the event, Yeafesh Osman said the government has recently started the construction of 46.73km elevated expressway from Uttara to Kutubkhali and the construction work of Dhaka Metro Rail Project will begin soon. In his speech, Jamilur Reza Chowdhury underscored the need for using sustainable technology in the construction work. A number of bridges are now being built over rivers and canals across the country and they should be constructed in a sustainable way. Speaking on the occasion, Kei Toyama said that JICA has been assisting Bangladesh in sustainable development as well as economic growth of the country. He gave the assurance that Japan will continue to assist Bangladesh as development partner. In order to enhance regional cooperation, experts from Japan, Europe and the neighboring countries are providing in-depth deliberations on bridge forms, architecture and aerodynamic design and service ability requirements. The conference will end today.