PM Modi will inaugurate the bridge on December 25 which is also marked by the government as Good Governance Day,” the official told.
Guwahati
Anil Poddar
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate on December 25 the Bogibeel Bridge, India’s longest railroad bridge, connecting the north and south banks of the Brahmaputra, falling in the eastern part of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, a senior railway official said. The bridge is 4.94 km long.
While former prime minister H D Deve Gowda laid the foundation stone for the Bogibeel bridge in January 1997, the work started only in April 2002 when former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee inaugurated the construction.
With several deadlines having been missed over the past 16 years, the first freight train ran on it on December 3.
Bogibeel is part of infrastructure projects planned by India to improve logistics along the border in Arunachal Pradesh. This includes the construction of a trans-Arunachal highway on the north bank of the Brahmaputra, and new road and rail links over the mighty river and its major tributaries such as the Dibang, Lohit, Subansiri, and Kameng.
The construction of the bridge will be a major boost in improving logistical support to the armed forces along the border in Arunachal Pradesh as India shares a nearly 4,000 km border with China.
The bridge will significantly decrease the journey time from Guwahati to Delhi. Currently, a train journey via Guwahati takes 37 hours. With the bridge in place, the journey between Dibrugarh and Delhi will be shorter by three hours.
