For the poultry farmers of Shariatpur, the Padma Bridge that opened on June 25 is a dream bigger than 6.15km.

They will no longer be divided and ruled by a course-shifting and often treacherous river.

Even though the district is not too far from Dhaka, the Padma River has been a major geographical divide for its poultry farmers.

The Padma Bride has opened up markets of Dhaka and other parts of the country to farmers and producers of Shariatpur, bound by Munshiganj on the north, Barishal on the south, Chandpur on the east, and Madaripur on the west.

As the bridge is expected to bring regional agriculture and small businesses to the mainstream supply chain, Shariatpur's traders of perishable goods and products such as vegetables, fish and poultry are hoping to benefit from the shorter travel time and better prices.

Shariatpur poultry farmer Hossain Ali will no longer have to worry if his truckloads catch up with the ferry and cross the Padma on time to reach Dhaka and other parts of the country. Halima Banu of the district will also get fair prices for her products.

"In Shariatpur, 32,400 metric tonnes of chicken meat and 11.5 crore eggs are annually produced in 1,478 poultry farms. Around 6,000 people are involved in the profession," according to the district livestock office.

Poultry traders of Shariatpur say they send truckloads of products to Dhaka and other major cities.

They load their chickens and eggs on trucks in the evening. The trucks often could not reach Dhaka the next morning due to tailbacks at the ferry terminal. This would affect the quality of chickens and eggs. So, the Shariatpur poultry traders were reluctant to send chickens and eggs to Dhaka.

The traders now hope that the new bridge would enable them to transport chicken and egg to the Dhaka market quickly, adding that fresh products would fetch them more profit.

Poultry farmer Abul Kalam Azad of Shariatpur's Naria said: "We faced difficulties in transporting poultry products to Dhaka. Many live poultry and Sonali chickens died at ferry ghat due to traffic congestion."

"The opening of the Padma Bridge will bring us closer to the Dhaka-based markets. Low-cost transport and lucrative rates in Dhaka markets mean more profit to us."

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Fatema Begum, another farmer from Shariatpur Sadar, said: "Poultry traders in our area stayed far away from the mainstream market due to lack of communication infrastructure. The Padma Bridge will make it a lot easier for us to connect to the markets in the city."

"More wholesale traders from Dhaka will now come to our area to buy poultry products, which will help us get competitive prices."

Shariatpur District Livestock Officer Dr Subodh Kumar Das said: "The Padma Bridge would have a huge impact on the region's poultry industry. Poultry farmers had not been able to earn much profit due to the lack of market access. But the bridge is going to change that."

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"The time required to transport poultry products to major marketplaces, including Dhaka, will reduce to 3.5 to 4 hours from the existing 8 to 10 hours, which will help farmers make higher profits and get greater access to the mainstream markets."