Bogibeel Bridge across the Brahmaputra (@JajaborManas/Twitter)On former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s 94th birth anniversary, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Bogibeel rail-road bridge, which is India’s longest such bridge, in Assam today (Tuesday, 25 December), reports Mint.
The prime minister also launched the Tinsukia-Naharlagun Intercity Express on the occasion, which will journey five across the bridge times a week.
The 4.94 km bridge will provide much-improved connectivity between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, further integrating the border regions of the Northeast. It will run over the Brahmaputra river, linking its south bank with Silapathar in Dhemaji on the border with Arunachal Pradesh.
The bridge has been constructed at a cost of around Rs 6,000 crore by the Indian Railways, and will reduce the road distance from Dibrugarh to Itanagar by 150 km and will shorten the railway travel distance between these two points by 705 km. It has two railway lines on the lower deck and a three-lane road on the upper deck.
The proposal for the bridge was part of the 1985 Assam Accord and was sanctioned in 1997-98.
The project will ensure much-needed connectivity in India’s North-East, strengthening the Indian Military’s supply lines along the Indo-China border in the process. Although the bridge’s foundation stone was laid during Gowda’s tenure, it was Vajpayee who inaugurated the work site in 2001.
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