Source: TNN
The bridge, which will be 1.29-km-long, is a part of the doubling of the 7.06 km long Agthori-Kamakhya section with the construction of new rail-cum-road bridge at Saraighat, officials in the Northeast Frontier Railway said. The total project cost, including the three-lane road and double lane rail route, is Rs 1,473.77 crore.
On Monday, the Railway Board also sanctioned doubling of the the Lumding-Furkating section (140 km) of NF Railway at an current estimated cost of Rs 2,123.7 crore. Both the projects were approved by the Union cabinet recently.
“The existing Saraighat Bridge was a bottleneck where we have a single line. The second bridge will help operate more trains,” NFR CPRO Sabyasachi De told TOI on Monday.
Among the completed double-lane stretches in Assam, the 17.53-km New Bongaigaon-Bijni double lane has already been commissioned. Double-laning between Bijni and Sarbhog (18.89 km) has also been sanctioned. Double-laning of the Sarbhog-Barpeta (8 km) stretch is targeted to be completed by April and the Barpeta-Pathsala section by next month.
The Pathsala to Nalbari stretch has been already been commissioned and the Nalbari-Baihata section is likely to be operational in May. The Baihata to Changsari section will be commissioned next month and the 8 km Changsari to Agthori stretch has already been commissioned. New work will resume from Agthori to Kamakhya and double laning from Kamakhya to Lumding is already complete.
Double laning of the 140-km-long Lumding-Furkating route will give a major boost to passenger and freight movement to Nagaland and in eastern part of Assam.
“With the Lumding-Furkating double line, all our rail movement in double line will happen all the way upto the border of Tinsukia division. In the Lumding-Furkating section comes Dimapur, a major station in Nagaland. So, it will get a higher number of passengers and freight trains,” De said.
