Staff Reporter
Guwahati: Six new features are being added to Assam’s first six-lane high-tech extradosed bridge over the river Brahmaputra, connecting Guwahati and North Guwahati, construction work on which is underway at present. The state government has given its assent to the proposal by Assam PWD to add certain new features and approved additional funds for the bridge project.
An important feature being added is a bridge health monitoring system, which will enable real-time monitoring of the behaviour of the bridge to the traffic passing over the bridge once it is operational. Being located in an earthquake-prone zone, it is crucial to monitor the aftereffects of such jolts to the bridge, and the system will enable this kind of monitoring. The data from the monitoring system will be analyzed by the PWD authorities from time to time.
Another new feature is the dynamic lighting system that will be installed in place of the earlier system. The lighting system will be installed across the 1240-meter length of the bridge. The new system will enable different colour themes to be displayed; for instance, the bridge may be lit up with the colours of the national flag on Independence Day and Republic Day.
The bridge will be painted with an anti-carbon paint so that the bridge will be able to withstand the elements of nature. Also, the longevity of the bridge will be increased by the application of the anti-carbon paint, which will make the painted portions resistant to rust. This will be especially helpful as Assam has a lengthy rainy season.
Two more new additions are the construction of one vehicular underpass and one passenger underpass on the approach to the north bank side of the bridge. The two underpasses were not included in the original plans of the bridge project.
A rescue station will be set up on the south bank, or the Guwahati side of the bridge, to aid people stranded on the bridge due to mechanical faults of their vehicles or in case of other emergencies.
Work on Assam’s first six-lane bridge over the river Brahmaputra, connecting Guwahati and North Guwahati, is around 89 percent complete, and the Assam government has targeted completing the bridge by June next year.
According to state Public Works Department (PWD) sources, the work on the superstructure of the bridge is currently going on, and as it is a cable-stayed bridge, the cables are now being fitted to the towers from which cables support the bridge deck.
The bridge is being constructed under the ‘Assam Bridge Project’ of the state’s PWD by SP Singla Constructions Pvt. Ltd. of Haryana in engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) mode. The funding agency for the bridge is the New Development Bank (NDB).
According to PWD sources, once completed, it will be India’s longest extradosed bridge. There are a total of six foundations, and the distance between each of them is 200 meters, and the foundations are embedded 56 meters under the riverbed. The bridge has been designed as per Indian Road Congress guidelines to last for at least 100 years.
PWD officials estimate that once the bridge becomes functional, it will take just 10 minutes to travel between Guwahati and Gauripur, on the north bank of the Brahmaputra. It now takes over an hour to cover this distance. The bridge will also serve to reduce the traffic snarls in areas such as Jalukbari, Maligaon, and Adabari in Guwahati.
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