OREANDA-NEWS. January 05, 2012. Bangladesh and China on Tuesday signed a deal for the construction of a highway bridge which is to connect three districts.

The "7th Bangladesh-China Friendship Bridge" on the Arial Khan River, one of the main south-eastward outlets of the mighty river Padma, flowing through central Madaripur and Shariatpur districts and southeastern Chandpur district will cost a total of about 2.75 billion taka.

Of the total cost, the Chinese government will provide 2 billion taka. The bridge is 700 meters long and 13 meters wide.

Construction work of the bridge will begin this month and it is scheduled to be completed within 2014.

Abdul Kuddus, chief engineer of Bangladesh's Roads and Highways Department, and Jin Chuanzhong, vice general manager of China's Anhui Construction Engineering Group Co. Ltd, signed the deal on behalf of their respective sides in Dhaka.

Bangladeshi Communications Minister Obaidul Quader and Chinese Ambassador to Dhaka Zhang Xianyi were present during the signing ceremony.

Under the same deal, three more supportive bridges will be built.

The Chinese group has already completed the feasibility study and made a design for the bridge.

In order to express the Chinese people's friendship to the Bangladeshi people, China had earlier assisted 6 friendship bridges to Bangladesh since the 1980s.

The sixth friendship bridge is situated in Munshiganj district, 37 kilometers southeast of Dhaka. It is built over the Dhaleshwari River, tributary of the Meghna River, one of the three main rivers in Bangladesh.

The first friendship bridge assisted by China is in Dhaka. It is 917.32 meters in length. Its construction started in October, 1986, and was finished in February 1989. (1 U.S. dollar equals to 79 taka).