A local company is providing prefabricated steel structures for the construction of a rail bridge in Bangladesh as the Japanese implementing agencies have granted approval in this regard.

As such, McDonald Steel Building Products Limited, a pioneer in structural steel fabrication, is supplying prefabricated steel structures for the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Railway Bridge (BSMRB) being constructed over the Jamuna river.

Taken up in 2016, the roughly Tk 16,780 crore project is being implemented with a soft loan from Japan that covers 72 percent of the total cost while the rest is being paid from the government funds.

A joint venture between Japan's Obayashi Corporation, TOA Corporation and JFE was contracted for constructing the eastern half of the bridge while IHI and SMCC paired up to complete the western part.

Abul Fattah Md Masudur Rahman, project director of the BSMRB, said the contractors selected McDonald Steel as a supplier only after ensuring that the company's products meet Japanese standards.

A prefabricated steel structure to be used in the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Railway Bridge is seen under construction at a manufacturing facility of McDonald Steel Building Products Limited. PHOTO: Collected

"They even inspected the manufacturing facilities of McDonald Steel," he added.

Previously, the contractors would get the required prefabricated steel structures from Vietnam as local manufacturers were not capable of keeping up with the demand.

Rahman said that sourcing prefabricated steel structures from a local company will help save foreign currency while the company itself will benefit from representing the country as a manufacturer of world-class products.

He also said it is really tough to get approval for using local products in Japanese funded projects unless their quality is fully assured.

Having started construction in August 2020, the project achieved physical progress of about 76 percent and financial progress of 65 percent up till June this year.

And with the approval having been granted in February last year, McDonald Steel has so far received substantial orders for steel products to be used in two spans of the bridge.

"McDonald Steel maintains the same quality as foreign steel fabricators. That is why we received approval from the Japanese consultants," said Md Sarwar Kamal, managing director of McDonald Steel.

Kamal also said other projects, including the Jamuna railway bridge, metro rail and expansion of the third terminal of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, are being implemented using products of McDonald Steel.

"This was previously unthinkable for Bangladeshi companies," he added.

He also said other than creating skilled manpower and employment opportunities, the company is helping save foreign currency and reducing the government expenditures.

McDonald Steel currently operates two manufacturing facilities, with one in Gazipur and another at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Shilpa Nagar in Chattogram.

"A decade ago, it was unimaginable to build a mega project without using imported prefabricated modular units of steel, resting assured of their international standard," Kamal said.

According to him, Japanese experts are supervising the manufacturing process while random samples are tested by those experts before installation.