L&T Construction has secured a contract to build India’s longest road bridge, which will connect the states of Assam and Meghalaya across the River Brahmaputra.

Spanning 19km, the bridge will join Dhubri in Assam to Phulbari in Meghalaya.

The bridge will be built along the National Highway 127-B and will include a 12.625km navigation bridge, as well as viaducts 3.5km-long in Dhubri and 2.2km-long on the Phulbari side.

The bridge will be well connected with approach roads and interchanges on both sides.

L&T Civil Infrastructure whole-time director and senior executive vice-president S V Desai said: “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 such a defining piece of infrastructure.

“Not only will it be an important passage for offering easier access to our 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.”

Upon completion, the bridge is expected to improve the connectivity of the north-eastern states with the rest of the country.

It will also establish better connectivity between the two states, reducing distance between them by 250km.

People currently catch a ferry to travel between Dhubri and Phulbari, which is nearly a 2.5-hour-long journey.

In March 2017, L&T Constructions presented six concepts for the construction of a bridge across the Krishna River, linking the village of Mulapadu with Amaravati City in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

The length of the bridge is 3.8km, which includes a 1.2km stretch suspension bridge.