PM Modi to inaugurate India’s longest rail-cum-road bridge on Dec 25

Tight security arrangement has been made in both sides of the bridge for the inaugural programme.

As a part of PM’s visit, teams from SPG are camping in the venues.

Assam DGP Kuladhar Saikia said that, massive security arrangement has been made in the venues and heavy security personnel have been deployed.

On the other hand, the Northeast Frontier Railway will run four passenger trains to ferry the people who are willing to witness the inaugural function.

Bogibeel bridge – a dream for the people of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, who waiting since last 21 years, finally come true.

The 4.94 km long bridge over the mighty Brahmaputra river is situated 17 km downstream of upper Assam’s Dibrugarh city.

The Bogibeel bridge with Double Line BG Track and three lane road, will be the lifeline of north eastern part of India and will facilitate connectivity between north and south banks of Brahmaputra river in the eastern region of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.

The bridge will not connect the Dibrugarh and Dhemaji districts of Assam, also reduce the distance for the five million people living in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh and provides better rail-road connectivity to the lesser developed areas of both states.

The Bogibeel bridge will also enhance the national security of the north eastern region by facilitating faster movement of armed forces and equipment.

This bridge will help in logistical support for the Indian army deployed in Arunachal Pradesh bordering with China.

The Bogibeel Bridge Project was a part of Assam Accord 1985 and former Prime Minister H. D. Deve Gowda had laid the foundation stone of the bridge on January 22, 1997 and former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee had inaugurated the construction work of the structure on Apr 21, 2002.

The project was initially sanctioned at a cost of Rs 3230.02 crore and the final cost was revised to Rs 5,920  crore.

The bridge will connect two existing Railway networks running at south bank and north bank of Brahmaputra river. The rail link starts from Chalkhowa station and Moranhat station at south bank and joins in between Sisibargaon station and Siripani station of Rangiya-Murkongselek section at north bank through the Bogibeel bridge. The railway line at north bank side was a Meter Gauge line which has been converted into Broad Gauge. The block section between Dhamalgaon and Tangani station is a double line section.

As of now, the train journey between Dibrugarh and Delhi will also come down from 37 hours to 34 hours and also benefit the people living in Arunachal Pradesh.

The bridge will be linked the NH-37 at south bank and NH-52 at north bank of the Brahmaputra river by a 29.47 km long national highway. The NH road link consists of 11.25 km at south bank, 13.26 km at north bank and 4.94 km on main bridge.

The super-structure of the Bogibeel bridge is fully welded Composite Warren type truss having span configuration of 1x32.75 m + 39x125m + 1x32.75 m with 2 BG tracks on the lower deck and three lane road on the top deck. This type of super-structure is being constructed for the first time on Indian Railways. The design of the composite welded truss has been done by M/s Ramboll, Denmark through M/s RITES Ltd and the proof-check was done by M/s Anwikar Consultant, Germany and it is estimated that the bridge is durable and serviceable for 120 years.

Chief Public Relation Officer of Northeast Frontier Railway (NF Railway), Pranav Jyoti Sharma said that, the Bogibeel bridge is an engineering marvel itself.

“It is a double deck bridge with three lane of road on upper deck and two railway tracks on lower deck and the bridge is fully welded and constructed following European international best practices,” Pranav Jyoti Sharma said.

Earlier, on May 26, 2017, PM Modi had inaugurated the 9.15 km long country’s longest bridge in the form of Bhupen Hazarika bridge or Dhola-Sadia bridge.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)