First-ever freight train on rail-cum-road Bogibeel Bridge

In a historic event, first-ever freight train moved on road-cum-rail Bogibeel Bridge. The 4.94 km long Road Bridge is the largest road-cum-rail bridge in the country. The train on this route and road bridge will help the army and civilians alike. Trains will run on the double line in the lower lane and on top of that, there is a three-lane road. “This will also accelerate socio-economic development of Upper Assam and eastern part of Arunachal Pradesh. It will also strengthen the security of eastern region of India,” said an official of the northeast frontier railway.

Earlier one had to first go to Guwahati to reach Arunachal Pradesh via train. This increased the distance between two states by more than 500 km, now after the bridge, operational distance is less than 100 km. The construction of Bogibeel Bridge will help the railways in reaching the easternmost parts of the country, close to China and Myanmar border. This is the second rail cum Road Bridge on the Brahmaputra after Saraighat Bridge and it will reduce the distance between Delhi and Dibrugarh by 155 km.

Bogibeel Bridge is the third bridge to be opened by Modi government over the Brahmaputra within two years. The strategically located bridge is very important from a security point of view in the wake of Chinese activities in Arunachal Pradesh. Another major bridge opened by Modi government in last year is Dhola Sadiya Bridge (also known as Bhupen Hazarika Bridge) which connects the state of Assam to Arunachal Pradesh. This bridge is built on Lohit River, a tributary of Brahmaputra and is located in the northern corner of Assam near the border of China. This 9.15 km long bridge happens to be longest bridge in the country and it will make movement on Brahmaputra River very easy.

The connectivity to the region has been so poor that capitals of Mizoram, Meghalaya, Manipur, Sikkim, and Nagaland still do not have railway connectivity. Only Assam and Arunachal Pradesh are connected through the giant network of Indian railways. The intra-region connectivity is also very poor due to a variety of reasons including difficult terrain and tough weather. The insurgency inflicted law and order problem also barred the development of the region for decades. However, the biggest problem for intra-region connectivity in the region has been the mighty Brahmaputra River.

The 3,848 km long river is prone to catastrophic flooding due to snow melting at the Himalayas, the river is an example of a braided river and is susceptible to channel migration and avulsion. Conclusively it is among the most dangerous river in the world and the people of northeast suffer from floods every year and thousands of people lose lives every year due to floods. The hilly terrain and sharp flow of Brahmaputra stream make infrastructure building in northeast very difficult. The building of bridges on the Brahmaputra can be carried out on the Brahmaputra for only half a year as for the rest of the year, the flow of the river is too sharp to build anything. The difficulty in infrastructure development is the reason that despite covering most of the Assam, only three bridges were opened in the last seven decades.