The Dibrugarh Nagarik Sangha on Saturday said India’s longest rail-cum-road bridge should be named Bogibeel bridge, opposing the demand by various communities and organisations to name the bridge after preferred personalities.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the bridge on Tuesday.

Jogen Borah, advocate and president of the forum, told reporters, “We submitted our first memorandum on June 21, 1977, to then Prime Minister Morarji Desai, demanding the bridge’s construction. Since then, the bridge is known as Bogibeel bridge. So, it should be known as Bogibeel bridge.”

“No organisation demanded a bridge before us but now they are demanding that it be named after their preferred personalities. We are happy that after long years of struggle, finally the bridge will be inaugurated. It will usher in economic development in the region,” he added.

Signatories to the first memorandum demanding construction of the bridge included then Assam Speaker Ramesh Chandra Baruah, former Dibrugarh University rector Lakshmi Prasad Dutta, veteran journalist Jagat Chandra Neog, and social worker and former member of the Dibrugarh Bar Association Binanda Chandra Baruah. A delegation of the forum, comprising Sadar Dilip Singh, Binanda Baruah and Jagat Neog, had submitted the memorandum to Desai in New Delhi.

“This bridge is the brainchild of some nationalistic and service-minded persons who thought of it in the early 1970s, following the 1962 Chinese aggression which threatened the very existence of Arunachal Pradesh and a part of Assam.

“The Dibrugarh Nagarik Sangha spearheaded the demand for a second bridge over the Brahmaputra at Bogibeel in 1977,” Siba Prasad Dutta, a member of the forum, said.

The All Assam Chutiya Students’ Union on Saturday released a list of 22 members, who, it said, would sacrifice their lives by jumping into the Brahmaputra if Modi does not name the bridge after Chutiya dynasty queen Sati Sadhani.

Special trains

The NF Railway will run four trains from Gogamukh and Murkongselek on Tuesday for the convenience of people attending the inauguration of Bogibeel bridge.

The first train (05816/05815) will leave Murkongselek at 7am and arrive at Tangani at 9.30am with stoppages at Telam, Simen Chapari and Sripani. The second train (05862/05861) will leave Murkongselek at 8.15am and arrive at Tangani at 10.15am with stoppages at Laimekuri and Sripani.

The third (05812/05811) will leave Gogamukh 07.30am and arrive at Tangani at 9am with stoppages at Bordoloni and Dhemaji while the fourth (05894/05893) will leave Gogamukh at 8.30am and arrive at Tangani at 9.55am with stoppages at Moridhal and Sripani.

All the trains will have open (flexible) timings on return journey, keeping in mind the not-yet-fixed duration of the public meeting to be addressed by the Prime Minister.