8 facts about India's longest bridge to be constructed between Assam and Meghalaya!

Representational image (courtesy: Google)

The Narendra Modi cabinet has approved the construction of the Dhubri-Phulbari bridge over the Brahmaputra, which, when completed, will become India’s longest river bridge. The bridge will be built across the Brahmaputra connecting Dhubri in Assam to Phulbari in Meghalaya, and will cut road travel by 203 km as also travel time. At present, vehicles take an over-200km-long detour using the Naranarayan bridge, which is 60km upstream. The new bridge will complete the missing link of NH127B from Assam to Meghalaya. The bridge will replace the 9.1-km-long Bhupen Hazarika Setu, also known as the Dhola-Sadiya Bridge in eastern Assam, as India’s longest bridge.

The Facts

✔️ The bridge will be built under the scheme of North-East Road Network Connectivity Project Phase-03.

✔️ The civil construction cost of the project is Rs 3,548 crore and the total capital cost is Rs 4,997.04 crore.

✔️ Rs 55.68 crore will be towards the cost of land acquisition, resettlement and rehabilitation and other pre-construction activities.

✔️ The 19.3km, four-lane bridge will be built by 2026-27.

✔️ The construction of this bridge over river Brahmaputra will reduce travel distance from 205.3 Km to only 19.282 km between Assam's Dhubri and Meghalaya's Phulbari. The bridge once complete and open to traffic will cut traffic time from five hours to 20 minutes between Dhubri and Phulbari.

✔️ It will hardly take 15-20 minutes to cross the river after the bridge becomes operational.

✔️ Japanese funding agency JICA has approved a loan for this project.

✔️ It will be built under Phase 3 of the Northeast Road Network Connectivity Project.