Guwahati, Feb. 27: Chief minister Tarun Gogoi today expressed surprise that the Union minister for road transport, highways and shipping, Nitin Gadkari, went about laying foundation stones of three bridges connecting different places of Upper Assam without preparing detailed project reports.

While two bridges will be at Sivasagar and North Lakhimpur via Desangmukh, Dhakhukhana, another will connect Jorhat and North Lakhimpur via Majuli.

Gogoi also skipped Gadkari's function at Moran in Dibrugarh where he was invited by the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd.

In a statement here today, Gogoi said the foundation stone-laying of the two bridges by Gadkari without preparing the reports had exposed that the BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre is out to hoodwink the people.

"I have never seen a central government like the present one, going out with foundation stone-laying spree without preparing detailed project reports. They are out to hoodwink the people with an eye on the elections," he said.

Gogoi asked how the project cost for the two massive bridges across the Brahmaputra could be estimated without preparing the detailed project reports, including feasibility reports.

The chief minister alleged that though the central ministers, as well as the Prime Minister, have made over 200 trips to Assam in the past 19 months, nothing concrete has emerged so far.

The Assam PCC echoed Gogoi and accused the Modi government of announcing new projects for the state, keeping in mind the Assembly polls.

Senior Assam PCC leader and former Rajya Sabha member Dwijen Sarmah told reporters here this afternoon that the central BJP leaders have adopted a new technique to catch the attention of voters in the state by laying foundation stones of several new projects.

"Chief minister Tarun Gogoi has decided to skip Gadkari's function. He did not want to mislead the people of the state by being present at a function where foundation stones would be laid for projects whose detailed project reports were not ready. This development is evident of the BJP's policy of misleading the people of Assam," Sarmah said.

PCC vice- president Ripun Bora, while addressing a press conference at Tezpur in Sonitpur district, lambasted Union minister of state for sports Sarbananda Sonowal for misleading the people of the state in the name of constructing four new bridges over the Brahmaputra. Sonowal had recently announced the construction of four new bridges in the state in a press conference in Guwahati.

"Gadkari today came to Assam to lay foundation stones of a few projects which were initiated by the erstwhile UPA government at the Centre," Bora said.

Additional reporting by Pranab Kr Das in Tezpur