The newly constructed Digha-Sonepur rail-cum-road bridge is ready for passenger trains after railway safety commissioner P.K. Acharya gave the go-ahead to the project.

According to East Central Railway (ECR) officials, the railway ministry has approached Prime Minister Narendra Modi to inaugurate the ambitious 4.5km bridge started by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

"The railway ministry has approached the Prime Minister's office (PMO) with a request to inaugurate the passenger train services over the bridge," a senior ECR official posted in the Hajipur headquarters told The Telegraph. "The railways wants Prime Minister Modi to gift the people of Bihar the longest rail-cum-road bridge of the Indian Railways."

On January 15 evening, Acharya authorised goods and passenger trains to run over the bridge with a rider - on the main bridge, the maximum speed should not exceed 60kmph and a maximum speed of 50kmph will be allowed on the high-approach track.

On January 16, the ECR made the first official run - a goods train passed over the bridge with an empty rake for Chhapra.

Acharya, an officer of the eastern circle (Calcutta), inspected various portions of the bridge and approach paths in two phases - from December 16, 2015, to December 18, 2015 and from January 1, 2016, to January 5, 2016 - after which he gave the nod to the ECR.

Asked about when Modi could inaugurate the bridge, the ECR official said: "It is up to the PMO to decide the date. If the PMO gives its consent, the bridge will be inaugurated after the Union budget on February 29, because officials will be busy in preparing documents. However, the railways is trying hard to run the passenger trains at the earliest which will not only provide an alternative route to cross the Ganga but also reduce the travel time from the state capital to north Bihar."

Gandhi Setu is the only bridge that connects Patna with North Bihar now, and traffic snarls are common. There is no rail service to north Bihar and if people want to go to districts like Siwan and Samastipur, they have to catch the train from Hajipur railway station. Ircon International Limited has executed the work on the Digha-Sonepur bridge, constructed at a cost of Rs 3,000 crore.

The railway safety commissioner has given seven days' time to the ECR to complete the remaining work over the bridge that includes signals at Palheza station on the Parmanandpur-Sonepur stretch.

Initially, railways had planned to run two passenger trains and extension of three express trains towards Chhapra, Muzaffapur and Raxaul. Recently, Patliputra Junction was made functional and trains are already originating from there.

Even express trains like Sanghamitra Express (12295), Patna-Pune Express (12149) and Lokmanya Tilak Express (12141) are departing from the Patliputra Junction. All the trains passing through bridge would halt at Patliputra Junction.

The importance of this bridge will be more evident when the construction of an 11.90km semi elevated/elevated road from AIIMS (on NH-98) to Digha (on the Ganga driveway) will be completed. It is being constructed on the western side of Patna that would connect Digha-Sonepur rail-cum-road bridge.

The inauguration of the bridge will also take a political colour once the dates would come near, as the both the Centre and the ruling Grand Alliance would like to take the credit.