Bogibeel bridge
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2018/ Bogibeel Bridge: longest road-cum-rail bridge
From: How a 5-km rail bridge brings upper Assam 170 km closer to Delhi, December 26, 2018: The Indian Express
From: How a 5-km rail bridge brings upper Assam 170 km closer to Delhi, December 26, 2018: The Indian Express
From: How a 5-km rail bridge brings upper Assam 170 km closer to Delhi, December 26, 2018: The Indian Express
Within the Northeast, the train journey between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh now reduces from 500 km to 100 km. For the rest of India too, Dibrugarh becomes accessible without travelling via Guwahati.
The record length is being widely reported: at 4.94 km, the Bogibeel Bridge is the country’s longest road-cum-rail bridge, and its fourth longest of any kind above water. The significance of the bridge is not just in the distance it covers across the Brahmaputra but also in the train travel time it reduces along the banks of the river.
The short journey
The Bogibeel Bridge, inside Assam, is 20 km from the border with Arunachal Pradesh. It connects Dibrugarh on the Brahmaputra’s south bank to Dhemaji on the north bank. While railway lines run along both banks, a train crossing of the Brahmaputra was possible at only two places so far. Both these rail-cum-road options — in Jogighopa in western Assam and on the outskirts of Guwahati (Saraighat bridge) — are hundreds of kilometres from the Assam-Arunachal border, and both bring trains from the north bank into Guwahati on the south. The Bogibeel Bridge provides an alternative in the east.
Within the Northeast, the train journey between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh now reduces from 500 km to 100 km, according to details released by the project developers. So far, travellers had to make the loop via Guwahati. For the rest of India too, Dibrugarh becomes accessible without travelling via Guwahati. The train journey from Delhi to Dibrugarh reduces by 3 hours (from 37 hours to 34) and the distance by 170 km.
This boosts the defence forces by facilitating quicker movement of troops and equipment to areas near the India-China border. It also benefits tourists, trade goods and those seeking medical treatment. Dibrugarh, considered a gateway to parts of Arunachal Pradesh, is home to Assam Medical College. For patients on the north bank, the only crossing into Dibrugarh so far was by ferry. That could take up to a couple of hours; a train can cross the new bridge in 5 minutes.
The long journey
“The Bogibeel Bridge’s biggest benefit is saving travel time by trains and vehicles in the region and providing better connectivity,” R V R Kishore, Project Director, Hindustan Construction Company (HCC), told The Indian Express. HCC, along with Germany-based DSD Brouckenbau and VNR Infrastructures, holds the contract for building the superstructure of the bridge.
The bridge has been three decades in the making. The proposal dates back to the Assam Accord of 1985. It was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs in 1997, the foundation stone was laid that year by then Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, and construction was inaugurated in 2002 by then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Work on the substructure began in 2008; the superstructure contract was awarded to HCC along with DSD and VNR in 2011. A spokesperson for Northeast Frontier Railway said the estimated sanctioned cost of the project is Rs 5,920 crore.
Length vs length
As a railway bridge, the Bogibeel Bridge upstages the 4.62-km Vembanad Bridge between Edappally and Vallarpadam in Kochi, Kerala, as well as the 4.55-km Digha-Sonpur across Ganga in Bihar. The former is a rail bridge across the Vembanad Lake; the latter is rail-cum-road like the Bogibeel Bridge.
In a comparison of all bridges across water, the Bogibeel comes in at fourth, after the neighbouring Dhola-Sadiya road bridge (9.15 km), the Patna-Hajipur road bridge (5.75 km), and the Bandra-Worli Sea Link (5.6 km).
