Quader: Ministry gets PMO letter on Payra bridge construction

The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has already sent a letter to the ministry concerned to take necessary measures to construct a bridge on the Payra river in the southern Patuakhali district. "The PMO has sent a letter to the ministry to construct a bridge on the Payra river following a letter of Shirshendu Biswas," said Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader while inaugurating Gabtali-Sinnirtek road in the city's Mirpur area on Monday. In line with the prime minister's assurance, Quader said the ministry has already started initial work and a team will visit Mirzaganj of Patuakhali district next week to initiate a feasibility study to this end. "Since Payra is a wide and turbulent river, it will require a double-lane bridge and so, it will take time," the minister said expressing the hope that the construction work of the bridge would begin by the next one and a half years. Shirshendu Biswas, a class four student of Government Jubilee High School in Patuakhali, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in August requesting her to construct a bridge on the river Payra. The PM, in reply, assured Shirshendu that her government will take measures to construct a bridge on the river. Patuakhali Deputy Commissioner AKM Shamimul Haque Siddiqui formally handed over the PM's letter to the boy today. Shirshendu's father Biswajit Biswas works at a private firm in Patuakhali and mother Shila Rani Sonnamot is a computer operator at the district cooperatives department office.