Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the country’s longest rail-cum-road bridge over the Brahmaputra river at Bogibeel near Dibrugarh in Assam on 25 December 2018. The 4.94 km long Bogibeel Bridge will cut down train-travel time between Tinsukia in Assam to Naharlagun town of Arunachal Pradesh by more than 10 hours. The project was undertaken by the Northeast Frontier Railway.

The strategically important bridge begins at Dibrugarh and ends at Dhemaji districts of Assam. The bridge is also Asia’s second longest rail-cum-road bridge. It has a serviceable period of 120 years. The Steel Authority of India (SAIL) supplied around 35,400 tonne of steel for the construction of the bridge.

PM also flagged off the Tinsukia-Naharlagun Intercity Express at north bank of Brahmaputra which will run five days a week.

The Bogibeel Bridge, which was a part of the Assam Accord and sanctioned in 1997-98, is also likely to play a crucial role in defence movement along the India-China border in Arunachal Pradesh.

The foundation stone of the project was laid by former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda on 22 January 1997, while work commenced on 21 April 2002. It was declared as a National project in 2007. Due to delay in implementation of the project, its cost escalated by 85 percent to Rs 5,960 crore. The total length of the bridge was also revised to 4.94 km from the earlier 4.31 km.

The bridge is part of the infrastructure projects planned by India to improve logistics along the border in Arunachal Pradesh. The road distance from Dibrugarh to Itanagar will be reduced by 150 km and the railway travel distance between these two points will shorten by 705 km.