PM inaugurates Rs 5.5k-cr projects in Assam, walks across new bridge over Brahmaputra

Guwahati: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday inaugurated a series of projects worth over Rs 5,500 crore in Assam. These include a six-lane bridge over the Brahmaputra here, the region’s second Indian Institute of Management (IIM), a national data centre, and a fleet of electric buses.

The rollout, months ahead of the Assam assembly elections, is aimed at boosting connectivity, strengthening digital infrastructure, promoting higher education, and enhancing public transportation in the state.

Modi began his day-long visit with the inauguration of the northeast’s first emergency landing facility (ELF) at Moran in Dibrugarh district, where he landed aboard a C-130J aircraft.

He later launched the Kumar Bhaskar Varma Setu in Guwahati, a six-lane extradosed prestressed concrete bridge built at a cost of Rs 3,030 crore. The 7.75-km structure, including approach roads and flyovers, is the first extradosed bridge in the northeast and the third bridge over Brahmaputra in the city.

The bridge will cut travel time between Guwahati and North Guwahati to just seven minutes, compared to the current 30 minutes via the Saraighat Bridge. Designed with friction pendulum bearings to withstand high seismicity, the bridge also incorporates a bridge health monitoring system for real-time safety checks. Modi had laid the foundation stone for the bridge in Feb 2019.

Later, at Lachit Ghat, Modi unveiled the temporary campus of IIM-Guwahati, the second IIM in the northeast and the 22nd in India. The Rs 555-crore permanent campus will come up at Palasbari near Guwahati, while classes will begin from a transit campus at Tech City, Bongora, under the mentorship of IIM-Ahmedabad.

The PM also inaugurated the National Data Centre (NDC) for the northeast, set up at Amingaon in Kamrup district at a cost of Rs 348 crore. With a sanctioned load of 8.5 MW and advanced rack capacity, the centre will host mission-critical applications of govt departments and serve as a disaster recovery hub, strengthening the region’s ICT backbone under Digital India.