DPR for 12.6-km Dhubri-Phulbari bridge submitted

By a staff Reporter

Guwahati, March 23: The detailed project report (DPR) of the proposed Dhubri-Phulbari bridge over the Brahmaputra, packaged as "2/4-lane bridge including approaches over River Brahmaputra between Dhubri on North Bank and Phulbari on South Bank" has been prepared and submitted. This strategic bridge will abridge Assam and Meghalaya with the rest of the tion, reducing the detouring road distance by about 250 km from Dhubri to Phulbari.

M/S AECOM, a consultancy firm, along with M/S BPC Consultant India Private Limited, has prepared the DPR.

The whole 20-km project, including the nearly 12.6-km-long bridge, with an estimated cost of over Rs 4,000 crore, will be funded by the Japan Intertiol Cooperation Agency (JICA), which is a governmental agency that coordites official development for the Japan government and helps other countries as well, including India, in development initiatives.

The project has already been approved by the Union Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MRT&H) while the implementing agency is the tiol Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDCL), a fully owned company of MRT&H.

AECOM has already submitted its DPR for the project, and JICA is currently examining it. A JICA team recently visited the site of the project for examining various issues related to the project, including environmental factors and the dolphin population of the river at the site. Another JICA team is supposed to visit the site again for further study.

Talking to The Sentinel, NHIDCL Northeast Executive Director (Project) Pawan Kumar said, "JICA will fund this 20-km-long project, and the DPR for it has already been submitted. The main bridge portion will be around 12.6 km."

At present, the 9.15-km-long Dhola-Sadiya bridge (Bhupen Hazarika Setu) over the Brahmaputra (Lohit river) is the longest one over any rive in the country. A bridge over the Ganga near Pat is under construction, which is going to beat the Dhola-Sadiya bridge in length. But when completed, the Dhubri-Phulbari bridge, measuring 12.6 km approximately, would again beat the Bihar bridge.

NHIDCL sources said since a whole lot of official procedures, including DPR approval, have to be followed for the mammoth project, it will take some time to start the construction work of the Dhubri-Phulbari bridge.