Manama, 26 June 2022:

On the joyous occasion of the grand opening of the long-awaited ‘Padma Multipurpose Bridge’ in Bangladesh, the Embassy of Bangladesh in the Kingdom of Bahrain organised a program to celebrate this truly remarkable accomplishment of Bangladesh on Saturday, 25 June 2022 at 7:00 pm local time at the Mall of Dilmunia’s Colours of the East art gallery in Muharraq city where the Ambassador of Bangladesh to Bahrain, Dr. Md. Nazrul Islam played host to foreign diplomats, senior Bahraini Government officials, prominent businessmen and women, journalists, students and teachers from Bangladesh School Bahrain, Embassy officials, and members of the Bangladeshi expatriates’ community in Bahrain who attended the program.

The program commenced with a video documentary on the construction of the Padma Multipurpose Bridge to apprise the distinguished foreign dignitaries about the bridge and the significance it as well as its construction holds in Bangladesh. Another short video highlighting various notable segments of the grand inauguration ceremony that was held yesterday in Bangladesh was also shown to the audience followed by playing the Padma Bridge’s official theme song and an opening speech by Ambassador Dr. Islam where he expressed his great pleasure and pride of this major accomplishment. He thanked the Almighty Allah and the brilliant leadership as well as determination of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for realising the dreams of millions of Bangladeshis by finally establishing a tangible link between the nation’s south-western and north-eastern regions.

The Ambassador then went on to express his joy by stating how the longest bridge in Bangladesh became the nation’s “Bridge of Pride” by not only being constructed completely by self-finance but also overcoming several setbacks, unfavourable circumstances and consequent controversies, making it one of the most challenging and prolonged construction projects in the nation’s history, thereby proving Bangladesh’s as well as its able-leader’s ability to overcome any difficulty and proudly standing in front of the world by following the footsteps of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. He concluded his speech by stating that he is fully confident that the 6.15 km-long bridge will surely contribute to the nation’s socioeconomic development in addition to enhancing regional connectivity and transportation.

The latter half of the program featured three cultural dance performances by the talented students of Bangladesh School Bahrain as well as the touring of a photography exhibition titled 'Glimpses of Bangladesh' led by the Ambassador. The distinguished dignitaries were also highly encouraged to purchase the exhibited photographs to keep them as memorabilia and to visit Bangladesh at their earliest opportunity to witness its beauty, culture, heritage and recent progress towards becoming a fully developed nation as they were all thoroughly enamoured by the beautifully captured photographs by two talented Bangladeshi photographers.

As the program came to a conclusion, the Ambassador expressed his deepest gratitude to all the distinguished guests for coming and also thanked the students and teachers from Bangladesh School Bahrain for their excellent dance performances. In response, the guests also thanked the Ambassador as well as the Embassy for including them in the celebration of this auspicious moment in Bangladesh’s recent history and conveyed their felicitations to all the major stakeholders of the Padma Multipurpose Bridge project for their undertaking and relentless pursuit of completion of a truly challenging project.