India's Forest Man has a mission in the New Year

Jadav Payeng, Indian Army to expand green cover around Bogibeel Bridge to help cut down pollution

By Our Staff Reporter

Guwahati, Dec 31: In 2016, the country's Forest Man Jadav Payeng has a new mission in hand.

From April, 2016, Payeng and the Indian army will launch a drive in upper Assam to increase the green cover over the area around under-construction Bogibeel Bridge.

The idea is to keep a check on the pollution level which might go up after the commissioning of the bridge in 2017.

"We will launch the drive in April. After planting the trees, the army will look after their upkeep. We are planning to grow Mahaneem (Melia) and Bogori (Indian plum) which are also known for their erosion resistance capacity," Payeng, credited with nurturing over 2,550-hectares of rich forest on a sandbar along the Brahmaputra river in Jorhat district, told The Sentinel over phone.

Payeng has already roped in some NGOs who have begun plantation drives near Dhakuakho.

Payeng expects the seedlings to grow into full-fledged trees in four years time.

India's longest rail-cum-road bridge, the 4.95-km Bogibeel Bridge on the Brahmaputra river in upper Assam, is expected to be commissioned in June 2017. Some 2,100 persons including engineers, welders and other workmen are at work to complete the bridge within the stipulated period.

The bridge which will connect Dibrugarh on the south with Dhemaji on the north bank, will have 39 girders of 125 meter and 2 girders of 33 meter span, and will be the fourth across the Brahmaputra.

While all the girders are likely to be completed by March 2017, it would take a few months more for fil commissioning of the bridge.

The earlier three bridges are located at Guwahati, between Kaliabor and Tezpur and between Goalpara and Jogighopa. While two of these are rail-cum-road bridges, the Kaliabor-Tezpur one is a road bridge.