Manmohan Singh

March 19: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will lay the foundation stone of the second bridge on the Brahmaputra in the city next month.

The proposed bridge would be the fifth on the river in the state.

An official source said the Prime Minister agreed to a request from the Union ministry of shipping, road transport and highways to lay the foundation stone.

“The ministry had contacted the Prime Minister’s Office to gauge the possibility of getting the foundation stone laid next month,” the source said, adding construction would begin as soon as the foundation stone was laid.

The new bridge will be constructed under the East-West Corridor project of the National Highway Authorities of India (NHAI), nearly 40 metres from the existing Saraighat bridge.

The bridge will facilitate the flow of traffic along the East-West Corridor, as the narrower Saraighat bridge would otherwise create a bottleneck. It will be constructed at a cost of Rs 238 crore and the contract has been awarded to Gammon India Limited.

The contract period for the construction of the new bridge is three-and-a-half years and it is slated to be operational by January 2010.

The proposed bridge would improve road connectivity between Guwahati and its northern part, paving the way for faster development of north Guwahati.

There will be a flyover at the Guwahati end to connect the bridge with the existing roads.

The existing road-cum-rail Saraighat bridge, which is the most vital surface link between the Northeast and the rest of the country, was commissioned in 1962.