Prime Minister Narendra Modi will today inaugurate the Bogibeel bridge, India’s longest rail-cum-road bridge, connecting Assam’s Dibrugarh on the south bank to Dehamji in the north. The bridge over the Brahmaputra will boost defence logistics along the China border and reduce travel time for rail passengers and road users.
From providing medical facilities to education and access to the airport, the bridge is expected to be a boon for people of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. Connecting north part of Assam to Dibrugarh city of south Assam, the road will provide connectivity from north Assam to Dibrugarh for the first time.
The rail bridge located below the road will reduce the travel time for goods trains by three hours. The first passenger train on the route will be flagged of by Prime Minister Modi today.
In future, the Delhi-bound trains might use the route which will save the travel time between Delhi and Dibrugarh by four hours.
With the next road bridge 255 km away and the next rail bridge 560 km away, the opening of Bogibeel bridge will save at least three hour of travel time between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. The bridge will make Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh easily accessible from Dibrugarh.
“The first passenger train, a Jan Shatabdi expresses between Tinsukia and Naharlagun, will be flagged off on Tuesday. This will enable the people of Arunachal Pradesh and north Assam to come to Dibrugarh which has better healthcare and education facilities. There was no way to connect these two parts earlier and the next bridge was almost 200 km away. Goods train carrying oil and coal has already started plying and passenger train will further boost the connectivity,” said Mahender Singh, chief engineer of the project.
The Bogibeel Bridge was a part of Assam Accord 1985 and was sanctioned in 1997-98. The foundation stone of the project was laid by then Prime Minister, H D Deve Gowda on January 22, 1997 but work on the project was only flagged-off by then Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee on April 21, 2002.
The 4.94 km long bridge has already missed several deadlines. The double decker bridge has three lane roads on top and double line rail below