NF Rly denies move to truncate Bogibeel bridge

DIBRUGARH, April 5 — AGP leader Sarbananda Sonowal today startled reporters with an ‘inside information’ that the Bogibeel bridge will have just one BG railway track and not two, as publicly announced by Railway Minister Nitish Kumar in the presence of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. However, when contacted, the Northeast Frontier Railway general manager (construction), N Rama Subramanian said: “The earlier proposal of twin BG railway tracks on the Bogibeel bridge remains.” He said work is under way to have the bridge with double BG railway tracks and double road carriageway, and strongly denied any move to truncate the ambitious project. He said that the railway authorities have spent Rs 80 crore on the project already, against a budgetary allocation of Rs 60 crore for the Bogibeel Project for 2003-04, and refuted allegations that Bogibeel funds are being diverted to other projects. The Bogibeel bridge project is a part of the Prime Minister’s National Railway Infrastructure Development Scheme, and thus is assured of a steady flow of finances. The bridge is scheduled to be ready for passenger traffic by March 2008.