Soil cutting beneath the pillars of the Padma rail bridge in Fatullah, Narayanganj, had been stopped and trees would be planted there instead, Sheikh Rabiul Alam, Minister for Road Transport and Bridges, Shipping and Railways, said on Tuesday, 16 June 2026. He was answering a question at a press conference in the conference room of the Press Information Department (PID) at the Secretariat in Dhaka.
In the days before, photos and videos of soil being dug from under the bridge pillars in the Aliganj area of Fatullah had spread on social media and drawn criticism. The bridge is part of the Padma Bridge Rail Link, a 172 km line from Dhaka to Jessore that includes 22 km of elevated viaduct and runs from Gendaria in Dhaka through Narayanganj, Munshiganj and several other districts.
What was known about the soil cutting
Ajker Patrika reported on 14 June that local residents alleged the soil at the foot of the pillars was being sold to brick kilns and that the bridge was being put at risk. After seeing the video, the deputy commissioner ordered a check, and the Sadar upazila nirbahi officer, S M Foyez Uddin, sent Fatullah's Assistant Commissioner (Land) to the site. The assistant commissioner, Asaduzzaman, said the people cutting the soil claimed to hold a work order from the project's Chinese construction company; because of the controversy, they were told to halt the work for now.
Shimul Kumar Saha, divisional estate officer of Bangladesh Railway's Dhaka division, said Bangladesh Railway never approves such soil cutting. The project's deputy director, Aminul Karim, told Narayanganj Post that the stretch between pillars 76 and 90, about 600 metres, had been a waterbody; the contractor, China Railway Engineering, filled it with soil or sand to build the viaduct, and a pond was being dug there again to restore the environmental balance. ATN News reported that soil was cut to depths of about 3 to 5 feet under pillars 85 to 89, and that the deputy commissioner stopped the cutting.
The minister's explanation and the decision to plant trees
Sheikh Rabiul Alam said: "As far as I know, it is not the case that this soil was dug out. When the bridge was built, some obstacles were left; you will see small barriers are made. Soil was removed from there, and it was removed out of necessity. But it now seems this removal is not being seen in another light, not being seen positively."
He said extra soil had been left there as part of the construction and had not been removed for a long time. Because the ground was raised, some items had been stolen, or nearly stolen, with ladders from that spot. Weighing everything, the extra soil was being removed. "We have stopped it and decided to plant trees there. Trees will be planted there," he said.
No plan to change the Bhanga-Payra rail alignment
Asked at the same press conference whether the route of the Bhanga-Payra rail line would be changed, the minister said: "A feasibility test has been done. At the moment we have no plan to change the alignment. The feasibility study followed the earlier alignment, and the project we are about to take up is proceeding on that basis. We see no need to change the alignment, and we see no such demand either."
Photo: Wasiul Bahar / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Sources: Jagonews24, Ajker Patrika, Narayanganj Post, ATN News, Wikipedia
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