On December 25 this year Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to inaugurate the Bogibeel Bridge over Brahmaputra river. The bridge will not only connect Dibrugarh and Dhemaji district of Assam on both the banks of the river, but also will be of strategic importance to India as it will significantly enhance India’s ability to transport troops and supplies to its border in Arunachal Pradesh.
The 4.98 kms bridge over the mighty river Brahmaputra will help over five million people living in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. Built at a cost of Rs. 5,920 crore, the bridge is designed after the Oresund bridge between Sweden and Finland across the Oresand strait.
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It will also give easy and direct access to the upper Assam from the rest of the country through the North bank, in contrast to the current route through Guwahati in the South bank -which is long and tortuous.
Lets know how the bridge is built:
- Bogibeel is India’s first and only fully welded bridge construction. It is also for the first time European codes & welding standards were adhered to in the construction of a bridge in India. It is estimated that Bogibeel Bridge is durable and serviceable for 120 years.
- For the construction of this mammoth bridge, Hindustan Construction Corporation Limited (HCC) has set-up huge facilities on the left bank of the river.
- To ensure an error-free welding – Magnetic Particle Testing, Dry Penetration Testing and Ultra Sonic Testing were deployed. A specialized Beam making CMM Machine from Italy is used for the first time in India for fabrication of Box and I-Sections.
- A 1000 tonnes hydraulic jacks and strand jacks linked with the substructures were used for moving the steel truss over the pillars.
- At the Bogibeel Bridge project, the team used a combination of rail and road transport to deliver 80,000 tonnes of steel plates.
- ‘Most 2D’ automatic nesting software was used to generate efficient two-dimensional cutting plans for fabricating the steel superstructure for the bridge.