The Bogibeel bridge will be ready for normal traffic from October 31 but the civilians have to wait as the state government have not yet decided about the opening date.
The Chief Engineer of the Bogibeel Project Mohinder Singh emphatically said that they would complete the bridge by October 31.
"We will do the load testing by running a loco engine by the end of this month and then a train from Dhamalgaon to New Sisibargaon. We are now working on electric fitting and the joints of the road. We would finish all of these by end of this month and offer the bridge to Commissioner of Railway Safety to conduct the trial. That too we expect to complete by October 31" he said.
When pointed out that works on the road over bridge of the feeder road is yet to be completed, he said that there are a service road and that can handle the traffic if the government wants to do.
But the Assam Government and Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal is not in a hurry and people of Lakhimpur and Dhemaji have to wait as the BJP is planning a gala opening function for the iconic bridge. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi shall come and open the bridge, which is expected to revolunatise the surface transport of North Eastern part of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh as the railway journey.
Through North Bank the railway journey between Guwahati and Dibrugarh shall be 155 kilometer less which means 2-3 hours of less journey. Similarly Dibrugarh-Delhi will be a 12 hour less journey. The Railway authorities have been planning to divert some of the train through North Bank.
Most likely it will be opened around mid January of 2019, closer to the general election for a feel good factor. The Rs 5600 crore bridge took more than 16 years to complete and it has 43 piers and cut off technology have been used for this purpose.
This is not only India's but Asia's longest railway bridge spanning over almost 5 kilometer. This bridge is also very strategic as it is going to open up the Indo-China border from the Southern bank.
