Guwahati: The deadline for completion of Bogibeel bridge, the country's longest rail-cum-road bridge being constructed over the Brahmaputra in Upper Assam has been revised to October 31.
The Northeast Frontier Railways Construction Organisation on Tuesday told Union minister of state for railways Rajen Gohain that the construction of the bridge would be completed in all aspects by October.
The NFR had earlier set June deadline for completion of the bridge.
The railway assured Gohain during a meeting on Tuesday at the NFR headquarters here at Maligaon in which the minister reviewed its ongoing projects.
The 4.94km bridge will facilitate connectivity between the north and south banks of the Brahmaputra in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. The bridge is seen as a further boost to the country's security infrastructure in Arunachal Pradesh that shares borders with China.
The NFR had missed several deadlines since former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had first laid the foundation stone of the bridge in 2002. The cost of the project shot up from Rs 1,700 crore to Rs 6,000 crore.
During the meeting, Gohain asked the NFR to target 90 per cent punctuality of mail/express trains, which touched 83.41 per cent this month from 58.53 per cent in January.
The NFR told the minister that the number of trains failing to run on time had decreased from 1,019 to 448 between January and August. Most of the delays were less than 60 minutes.
While in January, 677 trains ran with more than 60-minute delays, the number has dropped to 280 this month, said a statement issued by NFR chief public relations officer Pranav Jyoti Sharma.
The NFR told the minister that of the 674 stations, 420 had been brought under cleanliness programmes and the rest would be covered soon.
Gohain took stock of performances of the NFR in terms of progress of various construction projects and discussed punctuality, cleanliness, passenger amenities such as provision of toilets, lifts and escalators, elimination of un-manned level crossings and security.
