Context:

• Prime Minister of the nation, Narendra Modi inaugurates the Bogibeel Bridge today which is claimed to be the second longest bridge in entire Asia. A bridge with two-line railway track, this bridge is going to reduce the distance between Assam’s Dibrugarh and Dhemaji districts and due to this, the Delhi to Dibrugarh train travel time is also going to be reduced by about three hours.

Advantages:

• The advantages of construction this bridge over the Brahmaputra River in Assam, are too many for which it has lately been able to attract so many attentions all over the nation and abroad. Right from cutting the travel time between the two points by four hours, travelling by this bridge will help avoid a 170-km detour.
• What is more, due to its proximity to the China border, it is going to play a key role in India’s defense. The very base of this bridge is so strong that it is even capable of supporting the movement of tanks and even fighter jet landings.

Facts and figures about the bridge:

1. The Bogibeel Bridge is designed and constructed in the model of a bridge that links Sweden and Denmark. Moreover, this is the only fully-welded bridge in India for constructing which European codes and welding standards were followed. The maintenance cost of such welded bridges is very low.
2. The Bogibeel bridge is the second longest rail-and-road connector in India and comes with a lifespan of around 120 years.
3. There is a two-line railway track on the lower deck and a three-lane road on the top deck of the bridge.
4. The cost incurred in the construction of the bridge is around Rs. 5,900 crore and with this, it exceeds the initial budget of about Rs. 3,200 crore that was estimated for the originally planned length of 4.31 km.
5. The foundation stone for the Bogibeel project was laid on January 22, 1997, by the then Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda and the construction work of the bridge started only on April 21, 2002, with Atal Bihari Vajpayee inaugurating it.