Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to inaugurate the Bogibeel Bridge on December 25. It is to be noted that Bogibeel Bridge is India’s longest rail-road bridge, connecting the north and south banks of the Brahmaputra, falling in the eastern part of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
DNA quoted an official as saying that PM Modi will inaugurate the bridge on December 25 which is also marked by the government as Good Governance Day.
The bridge is 4.94 km long. The bridge, which is the second longest in Asia, has three-lane roads on top and double line rail below. The bridge is 32 metres above the water level of the Brahamaputra and is fashioned on a bridge that links Sweden and Denmark.
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.
Importantly, 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.
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