Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi will inaugurate the much awaited Bogibeel bridge over the Brahmaputra on December 25. Officials at the Maligaon-headquartered Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) said the Prime Minister will arrive at Dibrugarh today in a special flight from Delhi.
Pranav Jyoti Sharma, Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) of NFR said, "The bridge inauguration programme will take place tentatively at around 1:30 pm. He will first hold a ribbon cutting ceremony at the southern end of the bridge. Afterwards, he will pass over the bridge in a cavalcade to the north bank where a public meeting will be held at Kareng Chapori. He will then show the green flag to the Dibrugarh-Naharlagun special train, which will be the first train to pass over the bridge".
Sharma added that regular train services across the bridge will commence from December 26.
The NFR plans to introduce two new Intercity Express trains connecting Tinsukia and Naharlagun via the new bridge. While one train will run five days in a week, the other will run weekly. They will have stoppages at New Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Dhamalgaon, Dhemaji, Gogamukh, North Lakhimpur and Harmuti.
With a length of 4.94 km, Bogibeel is the fourth bridge over the Brahmaputra and also the longest rail-cum-road bridge of the country. It has double line broad gauge tracks and a three-lane road.
"The foundation stone of the project was laid by the then Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda on January 22, 1997, and work commencement of the project was done by Prime Minister Late Atal Bihari Vajpayee on April 21, 2002," said the NFR CPRO.
The Chief minister of Assam Sarbananda Sonowal inspected the bridge on Monday. The North East Frontier Railway has also made arrangements of four specials trains for the people who wants to be a part of the inauguration event . Two trains would run from Murkongselek and two from Gogamukh. The timing of the two train from Murkongselek are set at 7 am and 8:15am whereas the the trains set from Gogamukh are timed at 7:30 am and 8:30 am.
The inauguration of the long-awaited project is expected to give a huge boost to connectivity, as well as trade and commerce, in this part of the country. The Bogibeel bridge has been a long standing demand of the people of Assam and of the entire northeastern region.
Chief Minister of Assam Sarbananda Sonowal, Assam Governor Jagdish Mukhi, Central Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh Pema Khandu will also be a part of the inauguration event.
(Featured image : Indian Express)
