Feature: Chinese company builds "dream bridge" for Bangladeshis

Some 40 km southwest of the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, several cranes colored in bright red are operating on a vast river stretching to the horizon under the scorching sun.

In two years, a multipurpose road-rail bridge which local residents dub as "a dream come true" will span over the Padma River to link the northeast and southwest of Bangladesh. The 6.15-km-long complex, undertaken by a Chinese company, is the largest and most challenging infrastructure project in the country's history.

Cargo ships and ferries carrying Bangladeshi workers wearing green and blue helmets are crisscrossing the worksite, where several bridge pillars are standing in the vast water.

Ferries are the most common means of transportation in Bangladesh, which is slightly smaller than the U.S. state of Iowa but is home to 250 rivers. The low-lying South Asian country with underperforming infrastructure has an appalling record of ferry accidents, with casualties sometimes running into the hundreds.

The inland waterways, making transportation of both people and goods costly and time-consuming, have become a barrier to economic development of Bangladesh, which is listed by the United Nations as one of the least developed countries but has been striving to become a country of middle income.

That is why the Padma Bridge is as fabulous as a dream for the Bangladeshis, Ran Xiaolin, deputy project manager of the China Major Bridge Engineering Company, told Xinhua on Wednesday.

Ran's company began building the bridge at the end of 2015, several months after it won the contract. In testimony to its significance, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina attended the launching ceremony.

The 3-billion-U.S.-dollar bridge, co-funded by Dhaka and Beijing, will shorten the travel time between the capital and the southern city of Khulna from the current 13 hours to only three hours and a half, Ran said.

"Transportation between the capital and the 21 districts in southern Bangladesh by ferry will become history," said Ran, a veteran engineer who is now over 50 years old and moved his whole family to Bangladesh 16 years ago.

The bridge is expected to promote trade and economy of Bangladesh, which, according to a World Bank report, has the potential to end extreme poverty by 2030.

"The project has already helped create jobs by employing thousands of Bangladeshis," Ran said.

Moreover, the project, as part of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative and the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor, is expected to have a lasting impact beyond the country by increasing trade, tourism and investment.

Bangladesh is strategically located between China, India and Southeast Asia, making it well placed to become a trading and manufacturing hub, experts say. The Padma Bridge epitomizes China-Bangladesh infrastructure cooperation at both bilateral and multilateral levels.

China-Bangladesh cooperation is anticipated to be lifted to a higher level as Chinese President Xi Jinping travels to the South Asian country on Friday for a state visit, the first of its kind in 30 years.

Many local newspapers devoted their front pages to covering the event. The Dhaka Tribune, calling the visit a "milestone," said the Belt and Road Initiative helps boost trade and increase revenues, and urged Dhaka to make use of its geographical advantage to benefit from it.

Ran expects Xi's visit to give birth to more cooperation deals. "I'll have more bridges to build and I will probably work in Bangladesh until the day I retire," he said. Endi