Guwahati, Dec. 22: Assam transport minister Chandra Mohan Patowary today announced that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the 9.15km-long Dhola-Sadiya bridge - which will be the longest bridge in the country - in April as a "Rongali Bihu gift" to the people of Assam, but the company constructing the bridge is unsure if it can meet the April deadline.
Contrary to Patowary's announcement - made while inaugurating a road safety workshop titled Time for Action here this morning - an official of the construction company said they might miss the April deadline as land acquisition for the approach roads on either side was yet to be completed.
The bridge, which is being constructed by Nayayuga Engineering Company Ltd, is 3.55km longer than the sea link over the Mahim Bay in Mumbai - the longest bridge in the country right now.
Speaking at today's workshop, jointly organised by the Union ministry of road transport and highways and the state transport department, Patowary also said the second bridge over the Brahmaputra at Saraighat here would be inaugurated by Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari on January 1, 2017, as "a New Year's gift" from the Modi government to the state. Patowary said the ministry had sanctioned Rs 1,26,000 crore for development of roads and infrastructure in Assam.
"Many projects such as the Brahmaputra Express Highway, which will be constructed along both banks of the Brahmaputra, new bridges across the river connecting Phulbari-Dhubri, Kuruwa-Guwahati, Jorhat-Majuli, Majuli-Lakhimpur and Sivasagar-Dhakuakhana have been cleared by the Centre," he said.
"The state government will undertake a project to dredge the Brahmaputra at a cost of Rs 30,000 crore to develop it as a waterway to Bangladesh and boost trade and commerce in the state and a MoU will be signed with the Centre in this regard in January. We also intend to develop air connectivity through the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS), which will connect Guwahati to Jorhat, Jorhat-Dibrugarh, Jorhat-Aizwal, Guwahati-Tezpur, Tezpur-Lakhimpur," he said.
On road accidents, the minister said: "Around 7,000 people die every year in Assam in road accidents, which occur mainly because of faulty road engineering, drink driving and for disobeying traffic rules."
"As far as road engineering is concerned, PWD (Roads), National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (NHIDCL) have identified the "black spots" (accident-prone zones) in the state and accordingly corrective measures are being taken," the transport minister said.
Patowary said a trauma centre would become operational in Nalbari from February next year.
Commissioner and secretary of the transport department, Ashutosh Agnihotri, commissioner and secretary of the health department, Samir Sinha, police commissioner of Guwahati Hiren Nath, Kamrup (metro) deputy commissioner M. Angamuthu, vice-chancellor of Cotton College State University Dhruba Jyoti Saikia, GMDA chairperson Dhiren Baruah and GMC mayor Mrigen Sarania were also present at today's function.
