The 4.9-km Bogibeel bridge will cut down the train-travel time between Tinsukia in Assam to Naharlagun town of Arunachal Pradesh by more than 10 hours.
Sixteen years after work on the bridge started, Mr Gogoi has come to the site to see the completed bridge. Spanning 4.94 km in length, the Bogibeel bridge, India’s longest railroad bridge, will be thrown open for traffic by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday. He will also flag off Tinsukia-Naharlagun Intercity Express, which will run five days a week.
The 14-coach chair-car train will depart from Tinsukia in the afternoon and leave from Naharlagun the next morning,” Northeast Frontier Railway spokesperson Nripen Bhattacharya said.
“I was in school when late prime minister Atal Bihari Vajyapee came here to inaugurate the construction work. Over the years this bridge has been our dream, it is an outcome of several protests, struggle and is a major boost to this part of the northeast”.
For 21 years, residents of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh have been waiting for the completion of the double-decker rail and road bridge, on the Brahmaputra river, which would cut down the train-travel time between Tinsukia in Assam to Naharlagun town of Arunachal Pradesh by more than 10 hours. The project has been completed at a cost of Rs. 5,920 crore.
“This will prove to be a divine blessing for Dibrugarh. This will propel Dibrugarh as the next biggest business hub after
PM Modi will flag off the train after inaugurating the Bogibeel bridge on December 25, the birth anniversary of late prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and observed as the ‘Good Governance Day’ by the Centre.
The bridge is part of the infrastructure projects planned by India to improve logistics along the border in Arunachal Pradesh.
