Water Resource Ministry : Rs 64,564 crore Brahmaputra Express Highways feasible

Guwahati: In what may be one of the largest infrastructure projects of the Northeast, the water resource ministry has found ambitious Brahmaputra Express Highways project technically feasible.

The project foresees plan of constructing highways on both the banks of Brahmaputra thereby mitigating the impact of flood and erosion.

The project, which is estimated to cost about Rs 64,564 crore to the central government, will be constructed with dredged materials from the river.

The Union Minister for Road Transport Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari had floated the idea of Brahmaputra Express Highways for which an MoU has already been signed between the Central and Assam governments in March 2017.

It is significant that Brahmaputra is the world’s fourth largest river. Out of its total about 2,900 km trans-boundary length from Tibet up to the Bay of Bengal, 981 km is through India of which 268 km is in the sub-Himalayan terrains of Arunachal Pradesh and 650 km in the plains of Assam.

The expressway crest will be 2.5 m higher than the highest flood level of Brahmaputra. The crest will maintain reach-wise flood gradients of the Brahmaputra, which annually carries the loads of 650 million tons of sediment, ever since it underwent morphological changes after the 1950’s earthquake. The water resource ministry conducted initial survey of the project through Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS).