Govt nod for 4-lane bridge over Brahmaputra

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) Thursday approved construction of four lane bridge including approaches over river Brahmaputra between Dhubri on North Bank (Assam) and Phulbari on South Bank on NH-127 B in Meghalaya.

The total length of the bridge will be 19.282 km, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told reporters after by the CCEA meeting.

The construction of the bridge project will cut huge travel distance from 205.3 km to only 19.282 km and saving in time of five hours to 20 minutes between Dhubri in Assam and Phulbari in Meghalaya.

"This alignment will further augment the transport network for the region by providing the shortest link between the western regions of Meghalaya as well as Barak valley region of Assam and southern states in NE namely Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura and the rest of the country, including the ports of Kolkata," an official release said.

The government also approved a proposal for revised cost of project proposal titled 'ADB assisted North Eastern State Roads Investment Programme (NESRIP)', a centrally sponsored scheme implemented over a period of 5 years at a revised cost of Rs 2,144.56 crore from the earlier approved cost of Rs 1,353.83 crore.

Meanwhile, government also gave its gave nod to a pact between India and Norway for non-intrusive geological survey and investigations.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between both the nations in September last year between NHIDCL and a Norwegian NGO.