Union minister of state for Railways Rajen Gohain on Sunday directed railway authorities to expedite the construction activities of the Bogibeel bridge and abide by schedule for commissioning of the multi-crore project. The minister accompanied by Dibrugarh MP Rameshwar Teli and senior railway officials visited the Bogibeel project site, 17-km downstream of Dibrugarh town and took stock of the progress of work.
Since the construction work on the bridge has come to a standstill for the last four days due to an ongoing dispute between two contractors, the minister also held a meeting with district and NF Railway officials, representatives of the construction agency Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) and contractors to sort out the issue.
At the end of the 90-minute-long meeting, the minister announced that the matter was resolved with mutual consensus and work will resume by Sunday itself. The minister also instructed the railway officials to withdraw the police cases lodged against the contractors who stopped construction work on the bridge since Wednesday.
Dibrugarh DC Laya Madduri, Nilesh Kishore Prasad, general manager (construction) NF railway and Mahesh Kumar Gupta, member (engineering) railway board were present.
“The matter has been amicably resolved. I have directed railway officials to expedite the construction work and finish the project as per the new deadline. I have been informed me that 95% of the bridge has been completed. I’m hopeful that the project will be complete by July 2018,” Rajen Gohain said.
The Railway Ministry on Saturday sent two senior officials to Dibrugarh to resolve the crisis. The two-member team consists of Nilesh Kishore Prasad, general manager (construction) NF railway and Mahesh Kumar Gupta, member (engineering) railway board and ex-officio secretary to the Government of India.