The first speed test with a rail engine from Dhamalgaon rail station to the southern approach of the Bogibeel was carried out on Wednesday. Dhamalgaon is 7.5 km from Bogibeel.
According to NF Railway sources, the speed test was done successfully at a speed of 120 km hour. Earlier track machine was run on the bridge on September 20 to complete some of the track work.
Some other tests on the bridge like passing wagons with maximum capacity load/weight are likely to be done very soon before final commissioning of the bridge.
According to railway sources, the entire works will be completed within October except the Road Over Bridge (ROB) near Dhamalgaon. Spanning 4.94-km the Bogibeel Bridge over the Brahmaputra is going to be the longest rail-cum-road bridge in India.
The Bogibeel bridge that will connect the twin districts of Dibrugarh and Dhemaji is likely to be completed in this year end. The bridge will usher in a new era of economic development in the region apart from strengthening national security in the border areas.
Last month, Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal inspected the work of Bogibeel bridge. He said by this year end the bridge will be commissioned and he will request Prime Minister Narendra Modi to inagurate the bridge.
The failed deadlines had already shot up the project cost from the initial Rs 1,767 Cr to Rs 5,800 Cr.
Construction works of the longest rail-cum-road bridge of the country (4.94 km) was inaugurated sixteen years ago, on April 21, 2002. Late PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee inaugurated the construction work of the 4.94 km long Bogibeel bridge five years after former PM HD Deva Gowda had laid its foundation stone on January 22, 1997.