Padma Bridge: Tk 3,000 Crore in Tolls and a Region Reconnected

Four years after opening, the Padma Bridge has collected over Tk 3,000 crore in tolls, carries 22,000 vehicles daily, and is projected to lift south-west district GDP by 2.5%.

By the UISC BD Editorial Desk · United Information Service Center · Published 9 September 2026 · 6-minute read

The Padma Multipurpose Bridge opened on 25 June 2022. Four years and change later, there is enough operating data to move past projections and look at what it has actually done.

The Operating Numbers

• More than Tk 3,000 crore (Tk 30 billion) collected in tolls across the first 43 months
• Roughly Tk 2.5 crore per day in toll revenue
• Around 22,000 vehicles crossing daily on average

For a project financed domestically after international lenders withdrew, a steady revenue stream of that size is the most direct rebuttal available to the argument that the country could not carry the cost itself.

What It Did to the Map

Before the bridge, reaching Dhaka from the south-western districts meant a ferry crossing of the Padma — a journey subject to weather, fog, queues and, in bad conditions, cancellation. Perishable goods rotted in ferry queues. Patients requiring hospitals in Dhaka waited on riverbanks.

The bridge replaced an unpredictable crossing with a predictable one. That single change is the mechanism behind essentially every economic effect that follows.

The Projected Economic Effect

Studies of the project estimate an eventual lift of about 1.23 percent to national GDP, and roughly 2.5 percent to the GDP of the 21 south-western districts the bridge serves — with annual economic generation estimated near $4.9 billion.

The sectoral breakdown shows where the gains concentrate: construction output up 29.06 percent, agriculture 9.52 percent, and manufacturing 8.23 percent. Agriculture is the telling one — the south-west grows food, and reliable access to Dhaka's market changes what is worth growing and what price it fetches.

These remain projections built on economic models, and they should be read as such. The toll and traffic figures are measured; the GDP percentages are estimated.

The Part Most Coverage Misses

The Padma Bridge is not only a road and rail crossing. It carries a multimodal utility corridor — high-capacity gas pipelines, fibre optic cable, and electricity transmission — across the river.

The fibre matters for the digital programmes covered throughout this publication: connectivity to the south-west no longer has to route the long way around. The electricity link is projected to save around $27 million in transmission costs, and the combined corridor underpins 17 newly planned economic zones.

Building the utility corridor into the structure rather than as a separate later project is the kind of decision whose value only becomes visible years afterwards — precisely when retrofitting would have been most expensive.

Why It Became a Test Case

The bridge's financing history is why it carries meaning beyond transport economics. After the World Bank withdrew from the project amid a corruption allegation, Bangladesh proceeded using its own resources — an approach widely predicted to fail.

The structure was completed, opened, and is now generating revenue on a stable daily basis. Whatever one concludes about the underlying dispute, the delivery record is a matter of record.

Where It Fits

Together with the Dhaka metro network, the Padma Bridge belongs to a build-out that has changed how the country physically functions within a single decade. Both share a lesson worth stating plainly: infrastructure of this scale takes years longer and costs more than announced, and is still, in retrospect, usually worth it.

Related reading

• How Bangladesh Won 118,813 Sq Km of Sea Without a Shot
• The Ganges Treaty Expires This December. What Comes Next?
• Padma OS: Bangladesh Builds Its Own Bengali-First Linux
• India and Bangladesh Open New Transit Routes as CEPA Talks Advance

Sources

• "Padma Bridge earns Tk 30b in toll revenue," Prothom Alo — en.prothomalo.com
• "Economic impact of Padma Bridge," The Daily Star — thedailystar.net
• "Estimating the economic impacts of Padma Bridge," The Financial Express — thefinancialexpress.com.bd
• Khondker, "Economic Cost-Benefit Analysis: Padma Bridge Project," Copenhagen Consensus — copenhagenconsensus.com