Guwahati: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved construction of four-lane bridge which will boost North East road connectivity. The bridge including approaches over River Brahmaputra between Dhubri on the North Bank and Phulbari on the South Bank on NH-127 B in the Assam-Meghalaya border.
It has been mentioned in the press statement that the bridge will be built under the scheme of North East Road Network Connectivity Project Phase-03 under loan assistance with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) at the civil construction cost of Rs. 3,548 crore. The project has a total capital cost of Rs. 4997.04 crore including the cost of Rs. 55.68 crore towards the cost of land acquisition, resettlement and rehabilitation and other pre-construction activities. The project to be started soon is expected to be completed within six years.
The new four-lane bridge will have strategic and socio-economic importance besides boosting road connectivity. The construction of the bridge will also cut down travel distance from 205.3 km to only 19.282 km between Dhubri in Assam and Phulbari in Meghalaya. It will also cut down travel time from five hours to 20 minutes from Dhubri to Phulbari.
The construction of the bridge will be an instrument for the development of the most economically backward districts in the states of North East. The bridge will further augment the transport network for the region by providing the shortest link between the western regions of Meghalaya as well as Barak Valley region in Assam and the southern states in the North Eastern region namely, Mizoram, Manipur and Tripura along with the rest of the country.
An official of National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) said that they will be floating tenders for the project and that they will try to start the work in the financial year. The official said that it will be a public funded work. It has also been said that the construction of the bridge over the River Brahmaputra takes time as the work could be carried out only for six months and that work should be kept in hold during the monsoon period.
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