The river Jamuna (Brahmaputra), along with the lower stretch of the Padma (Ganges) divides Bangladesh into nearly two equal halves.

Until now all road and rail communication between the two parts of the country has had to rely on time-consuming ferry services that were often disrupted because of navigability problems.

The need for a bridge over the Jamuna River was felt, especially by the people living in northwestern Bangladesh, for a long time.

Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge was constructed by Hyundai Heavy Industries[citation needed] at a cost of $696 million.

On the main bridge, electrical interconnector pylons are positioned on brackets cantilevered from the north side of the deck.

The main bridge deck is a multi-span precast prestressed concrete segmental structure, constructed by the balanced cantilever method.

Within a decade of inauguration, cracks were detected on the bridge prompting the authorities to impose limits on the number of vehicles allowed to cross at any given time.

By early 2008, the government announced its intention to sue the South Korean conglomerate Hyundai for flawed design.

[7] During March 2006-June 2006, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology experts worked to identify the causes of extensive cracking of prestressed concrete deck, web and pear head units of almost all segments of the Bridge.

Health monitoring campaign was conducted by Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology for first few years to take reference measurements.