PM Modi inaugurates India's longest rail-road bridge Bogibeel Bridge on Bramhaputra river

BOGIBEEL: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday inaugurated India's longest rail-road bridge on the Brahmaputra river. The bridge has been thrown open 16 years after it was announced by the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. 

Assam: Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Bogibeel Bridge in Dibrugarh. It is combined rail and road bridge over Brahmaputra river between Dhemaji district and Dibrugarh district. pic.twitter.com/g7DqYnZXuQ — ANI (@ANI) December 25, 2018

The 4.9 km-long Bogibeel Bridge has a two-line railway track on the lower deck and a three-lane road on the top deck. The bridge reduces travel time from Assam to Arunachal Pradesh to four hours and will cut out the detour of over 170 km via Tinsukia. It will also reduce Delhi to Dibrugarh train-travel time by about three hours to 34 hours as against 37 hours presently.

Assam: Prime Minister Narendra Modi at 4.94 km long Bogibeel Bridge, a combined rail and road bridge over Brahmaputra river in Dibrugarh. pic.twitter.com/f7p2WCytfs — ANI (@ANI) December 25, 2018

For the first time in Indian Railways, the girder has a steel floor system for railway tracks and concrete for the road. 'Most 2D' automatic nesting software was used to generate efficient two-dimensional cutting plans for fabricating the steel superstructure for the bridge.

After December 25, people, especially patients from Assam Medical College, can travel straight from Dibrugarh from the other side of the river instead of using the ferries. 

The bridge is part of infrastructure projects planned by India to improve logistics along the border in Arunachal Pradesh. This includes the construction of a trans-Arunachal highway on the north bank of the Brahmaputra, and new road and rail links over the mighty river and its major tributaries such as the Dibang, Lohit, Subansiri and Kameng.