North East Frontier Railway will construct a rail-cum-road bridge across the Brahmaputra at Bogibeel in Assam.

The project envisages the development of a 4.94 km bridge which will provide connectivity to upper Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, and cut down the distance to the border with China. It is expected to be completed in 2016.

The rail link will connect two existing railway networks running at south bank and north bank of the river. It will start from Chaulkhowa station and Moranhat station at south bank, and joins in between Sisibargaon station and Siripani station of Rangiya-Murkongselek section in north bank.

The foundation stone for the project was laid in 2002, and the project was supposed to be completed in six years, but lack of funds and attention kept it idle till 2007 when it was given national status. The national status meant that the Union Finance Ministry provided 75 per cent funds for the project, while 25 per cent was to be borne by the Railways.

The rise in the cost of cement and steel will be responsible for the escalation costs to be incurred on the project.

In 2008, North East Frontier Railway had awarded construction work of the sub-structure of the bridge to Gammon India in April 2008, while the work on the superstructure was awarded partially to Hindustan Construction Company, DSD, a German company, and Bangalore-based VNR.

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