The longest bridge in the country will come up in Assam soon. Twin bridges running along 126 kilometres will stretch from Sivasagar in Upper Assam, connecting the river island Majuli to the rest of the state.
The longest bridge in the country will come up in Assam soon. Twin bridges running along 126 kilometres will stretch from Sivasagar in Upper Assam, connecting the river island Majuli to the rest of the state.
“The project, running up to Rs 15,000 crores, has been sanctioned by the Centre. A South Korean company is working on a detailed project report (DPR) which will take a year to complete,” Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal told DNA.
The bridges, Sonowal said, will start at the Nitai Pukhuri bridge in Sivasagar, pass via the Tekeli Phuta bridge in Dhakuakhana, from where the bridge will trifurcate and connect Majuli island at the ports at Kamalabari and at Nemati.
Majuli, the biggest river island in the world, was earlier part of the Jorhat district, and is Sonowal’s constituency. He had promised to declare Majuli a district and build a bridge to connect it to the mainland. Majuli has now been declared a district.
Sonowal also said the state is also working on the island’s problem of erosion. “We are working on a project to dredge the riverbed so that it can hold more water. This will allow for the passage for ships of up to 10,000 metric tonnes via the river,” he added.
The CM said that the sand that will be deposited on both sides of the river will be converted into national highways to stop the erosion. Sonowal added that the idea was mooted by the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari.
Waterways as a mode of transport has been largely ignored, he said. “The British used the Brahmaputra to transport Digboi’s oil, Margherita’s coal and Tinsukia and Dibrugarh’s tea, on to Bangladesh via the Padma, and then on to other parts of the world to develop a global trade environment. The river is the cheapest mode of travel. If rail transport costs you a rupee and road transport Rs 1.5, river transport costs only 30 paise,” said Sonowal.
Need to change Brahmaputra’s image: Sonowal
Reacting to the controversy over the name of the river festival ‘Namami Brahmaputra’, CM Sarbananda Sonowal said that the festival will change the image of the river from a flood-hit one.
“People know of the river as one that creates floods. The festival will strive to change that idea and bring forward the composite cultures of the Greater Assamese society on each side of the banks. It will also promote tourism by showcasing the cultures of over 21 different stops from Sadiya to Dhubri along the river,” he said.
He also said that the budget of Rs 40 crore is much lesser than what other states are usually given.
A controversy broke out after the festival’s name, Namami Brahmaputra, carried the Sanskrit word “namami”, meaning obeissance. The criticism is on the grounds that by adopting a Sanskrit name, the festival overlooks Assam’s own cultural ideals and that of the several tribes in the state, some of whom are not Hindus.
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