India's Longest Rail-Road Bridge

Bogibeel Bridge in Assam, coming up across river Brahmaputra is touted to be India's longest rail-road bridge, once completed in 2016. The bridge will be a double-deck bridge with a two-line railway track on the lower deck and a three-lane road on the upper.

At about 4.940 km in length, it will perhaps be the longest railway bridge in the country. It is already the fourth longest bridge being built over the Brahmaputra at an estimated cost of Rs 3230 crore

  

This national project was sanctioned under the National Rail Vikas Yojana in 1997–98, and the foundation stone was laid by the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on April 21, 2002

Located 17 km from Dibrugarh, Bogibeel will connect North Lakhimpur, facilitating easy connectivity for the people of Arunachal’s eastern districts (Dibang and Lower Dibang Valley, Lohit, Anjaw, Changlang, Tirap and Longding) to some parts of eastern (East Siang and Upper Siang) and western districts (West Siang, Lower and Upper Subansiri, Kurung Kumey and Papum Pare).

The rail project comprises the laying of 74 km of railway line, including the rail links on the south and north banks of the river.

 The Bogibeel bridge is also the longest structure being built on the river Brahmaputra.The rail-road bridge is the fourth being built on the river, the others being Pandu Saraighat, Kolia-Bjumuraguri and Naranarayan Setu at Jogighopa - all of them in Assam.

The key objective of the project is to provide rail and road connectivity between the lesser developed districts of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh in the North Bank of the river Brahmaputra to the South Bank.

The rail line will be linked to Chowalkhowa, which is 5.83 km from Dibrugarh, on the South bank and between Sisi Borgaon and Sirpani on the North bank.

The bridge will also provide direct access to the districts of Upper Assam from the rest of the country through the North bank without having to take the tortuous route through Guwahati in the South bank

In a first for the Indian Railways, the bridge will be an all welded steel one. In addition, the method of placement of the girders across the river will be unique: 10 girders will be launched simultaneously across the river using the method of incremental launching.

About 90% work on the substructure has been completed. Balance work is expected to be completed by the end of 2014 .The work of the superstructure is now in progress and launching of the first span of the bridge is expected in February 2014

Work is being undertaken by number of premier construction companies, including Gammon India Ltd, Simplex, Hindustan Ltd and North-East Frontier Railway to complete their projects on time