DIBRUGARH, The Bogibeel Bridge, which was one of the demands in the Assam Accord, will connect the two banks of the Brahmaputra. When completed, it will cover a length of 4.94 kilometres, making it the longest rail-cum-road bridge in the country. The project took off after a false start. It was sanctioned in 1997-98. The then Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda had laid the foundation stone in January 1997 at Kulajan Pathar in Dhemaji. But, nothing happened thereafter. On April 21, 2002, the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, pushed a button at Dibrugarh during a public function indicating the commencement of work on the bridge. As against the proposed completion period of seven years, he asked it to be done in six years i.e. 2007. The cost was estimated to be Rs 1767.85 crore. The projected year of commissioning came and went. However, there was no progress of work at all. The Centre then declared it a national project in 2007. Later, Railway authorities said that the bridge would be complete within 2010-12. Recently, the Chief Engineer for the project, Ravinder Ram, stated the bridge would be complete by June 2015. Meanwhile, the cost of the project has escalated to Rs 3230.02 crore. Officials cite the climactic conditions of the region as the cause of delay. The normal working period is around hundred and ten days, from December to mid-March, and carrying out work mid-river when the water level rises is not possible. However, every aspect is generally taken into consideration while planning out any project of this proportion and announcing the possible date of completion. When asked about it, Mahendra Singh, the Deputy Chief Engineer (Construction) of NF Railway at Dibrugarh, said that the delay initially was for lack of funds. The recognition of the bridge as a national project took care of it. Collection of boulders took up nearly five years, of which two were lost due to the ban on quarrying by the Arunachal Pradesh Government, he added. Nine lakh cubic metres were needed on the South bank and 12 lakh on the North for construction of the guide bunds. Singh stated that they had to transport boulders almost 250 kilometres from Bihora near Kaziranga to the north bank. According to him, two working seasons were lost due to the anti-Hindi wave, which saw skilled workers and supervisors running away from the site. The Railway authorities took their time before the work order for the sub-structure was given to Gammon India Limited, who started construction of the pillars, wells in engineering jargon, in 2008-09. The entire process is elaborate and involves sinking of caissons, which are prefabricated steel frames designed to withstand the underwater pressure, to form the solid foundation for the building of wells. Well caps are built on top of these wells, followed by piers. The bed-block, which forms the base for the super-structure, tops each pillar. The sub-structure is a double D well foundation of size and twin circular hollow piers. The Deputy Chief Engineer of Railways on the North Bank, T Bhutia, talked of the technicalities involved in the procedure of sinking caissons and there is always the possibility of them being washed away. According to Bhutia, they lost two caissons in untimely floods during October-November last year. However, he added, such incidents do not affect the pace of work much. Incidentally, building a caisson is expensive. When the sub-structure is completed, an estimated 20,000 metric tones of steel would have gone into it. At present, work on 32 wells out of total 42 has been taken up and twenty of these are complete. Construction of the remaining ten wells will be taken up in October-November this year. Eight piers are complete. Initially, the number of wells to be built was 39. Each pillar requires 72, 000 bags of cement and 60 tonnes of steel for its structural shell, besides 550 tonnes for reinforcement. The well foundation and sub-structure shall be complete by June, 2013, a Railways statement mentioned. Meanwhile, the Railway Board is yet to announce the agency that has won the tender, which was floated more than a year back, for the superstructure. During a recent visit, the General Manager reportedly said that the final decision would be announced within a few days. Engineers said that the bed-block will have to be constructed as per the requirements of the construction company, which will build the super-structure. If so, finalizing of the agency for the task is of prime importance in order to proceed to the next stage of work. According to Deputy Chief Engineer, Mahendra Singh, the super-structure will be complete within three to four years from commencement. He added that work on the super-structure can start at both ends immediately. However, that can only happen once the construction company, which has won the tender, receives the work order. Incidentally, girders weighing 1200 tonnes will be used during this stage. The super-structure will require 60,000 tonnes of steel. Only time will tell whether the Railways is able to meet the recently announced date of commissioning or further extends the period. In the meantime, people can only hope for the quick completion of the bridge with double-line broad gauge track and three lanes road, red-tape notwithstanding.