L&T to construct India's longest river bridge

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) on Wednesday said it has secured a large contract to construct the country's longest road bridge across river Brahmaputra connecting Dhubri in Assam to Phulbari in Meghalaya.

The contract was bagged by the company's subsidiary L&T Construction.

As per the company, a large contract is worth Rs 2,500-5,000 crore.

"The 19 km-long bridge will be built along National Highway 127-B and will feature a navigation bridge of 12.625 km, approach viaducts of 3.5 km on the Dhubri side and 2.2 km on the Phulbari side, connected with approach roads and interchanges on both sides," L&T said in a statement.

The bridge will have huge strategic relevance by improving the connectivity of the north eastern states with the rest of the country and establish a vital link between Assam and Meghalaya by reducing the distance between the two states by 250 km, it said.

Currently the travel between Dhubri and Phulbari is by ferry that takes up to 2.5 hours.

"This is an extremely challenging project, and we thank our client, National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd for reposing confidence in our capability to build a such a defining piece of infrastructure," said S V Desai, Whole Time director & senior executive vice president (civil infrastructure), L&T.

The bridge will not only be an important passage for offering easier access to the North Eastern international borders but will give a huge fillip to trade and commerce in the region for the accelerated development of all the North Eastern States especially Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and the Barak Valley, he said.

Photograph: Shailesh Andrade/Reuters