More than 16 years in making, the country’s longest rail-cum-road Bogibeel bridge in Assam is now almost complete. Once operational, it would considerably reduce the travel time between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
The dedication of the Rs 6,000 crore national project will be done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi shortly.
The foundation stone of the 5-km Bogibeel bridge on Brahmaputra was laid by former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Not only the people of the North-East but also the entire country is waiting for this multi-technology and strategically important bridge, officials said.
The bridge will facilitate connectivity between north and south banks of the Brahmaputra in the eastern region of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. A distance of about 600 km now being covered between the two parts will be cut short merely by 40km.
The Defence logistics along the Indo-Sino border is also set to improve after the bridge connects Dibrugarh to Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh. According to rail officials, the ambitious projects is both a symbol of development in the North-East as well as part of a strategic move to solve logistical issues for the armed forces stationed along the China border to get supplies from Tezpur. India has 3,488-km long land boundary with China with almost 75 per cent of it falls in Arunachal Pradesh.
The Bogibeel bridge, originally scheduled to be inaugurated in 2009, is being constructed since 2002.
“The Northeastern Frontier Railway has over the years worked under difficult conditions. There was an economic blockade in Manipur once upon a time that too hampered a lot,” said Mohinder Singh, project incharge.
Singh said work is on in full swing and laying of tracks has been completed. Work on the road project is now in progress.
The cost of the project shot up from Rs 1,700 crore to Rs 6,000 crore and deadlines were missed quite a number of times.
Besides this, the other projects in the North-East like construction of railway tracks to Imphal in Manipur would be completed by 2020.
Further, land acquisition is on in Nagaland and the Final local Survey Work is progressing for train line to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh.
On extension of tracks from Dimapur to Kohima, Railway Board Publicity Director Ved Prakash said land for 17 km has already been acquired and it is being acquired for the rest of the land.
For the railway line to Tawang bordering Tibet, he said the Final local Survey Work is progressing and two more years would be required for completion.