Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday inaugurated the Padma Bridge, the longest rail-road bridge of the country.

The 6.15-km-long road-rail four-lane bridge is built over the Padma River connecting southwestern Bangladesh with the capital and other parts.

This is the country's biggest infrastructure project since independence from Pakistan, which left Bangladesh bloodied and battered. But in 50 years down the line and with Sheikh Hasina at the helm, this youngest nation in South Asia has excelled to become the bull case for the region.

The multipurpose road-rail bridge, which is fully funded by the Bangladesh government, has been constructed at a cost of 3.6 billion dollar.

The inauguration of the Padma bridge carries a lot of significance as the structure was built entirely with domestic financing, defying speculations by some financial analysts if Bangladesh could mobilise the fund depending on domestic resources.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed deep gratitude to the people involved with the construction of the Padma bridge.

The Padma Bridge project witnessed several engineering wonders as well as technological challenges. It emerged as the wonder structure for Bangladesh and saw the use of state-of-the-art machinery and know-how.