Road and railway networks in north Bengal have come under renewed focus of the Union government with heightened tension on the China border, which seems to have prompted the Centre to augment the communication infrastructure in the region for the movement of military equipment.

“There seems to be a tearing hurry to complete some of the projects that have been pending for years in north Bengal,” said a source in Siliguri.

The National Highways Authority of India is about to complete a second bridge over the Teesta river near Jalpaiguri along NH27— the four-lane road that connects Northeast with the rest of India via north Bengal — in a couple of months.

The Union ministry of road transport and highways has planned to start the construction of another bridge at Sevoke Bazar over the Teesta along NH31.

Added to these projects, work on a 250km-long new road that would originate from NH31 near Bagrakote in the Dooars and end in Gangtok is in full swing. The project has been taken up by National Highway and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited.

“As of now, NH10 that starts from Sevoke is the only road to the Himalayan state. The alternative road has long been planned, keeping in mind some of landslide-prone stretches of NH10. But the strategic location of Sikkim, on the India-China border, seems to have fast-tracked it,” said the source.

Construction of a second railway bridge over the Teesta, which is in Jalpaiguri district and along the principal rail route to Northeast, is in full swing and is likely to be ready during the current fiscal.

Over the Teesta, there are altogether three road bridges for travel to Northeast.

Among them is the Coronation Bridge at Sevoke, which is 80 years old. In 2011, after some cracks developed, movement of heavy vehicles have been restricted through the bridge.

Work on a new bridge in full swing, parallel to the old one over the Teesta near Jalpaiguri. Picture by Biplab Basak

There is another bridge downstream along the Teesta Barrage at Gazoldoba. Further downstream, there is one more bridge along NH27, on the outskirts of Jalpaiguri.

“Time and again, defence analysts have pointed out that a second bridge is necessary parallel to the existing Teesta bridge that is on NH27 and connects Jalpaiguri and Maynaguri. This is important if it is necessary to send artillery machines and other equipments to Northeast,” said a senior intelligence official.

The other mode of transportation, he mentioned, is the railways. “But like road bridge, there was no second rail bridge over the Teesta along the main railway route that connects Northeast. There is a railway bridge in the Dooars but there are no double tracks,” he added.

After the Dokalam stand-off between Indian and Chinese troops for around 70 days in 2017, the need for additional road and rail bridges was time and again mentioned at various quarters.“Our work is going on in full swing and we hope we would be able to open the new Teesta bridge by July this year,” said Pradyut Dasgupta, the project director of NHAI.

Asked about the second rail bridge over the Teesta near Jalpaiguri, officials of Northeast Frontier Railway said they expected the work to finish by March next year.

A letter sent by Nitin Gadkari, the Union minister of road transport and highway, to Darjeeling BJP Raju Bista recently reaffirmed that the Centre was keen on developing road infrastructure in the region.

Bista had earlier written to the minister, mentioning that the project to build a bridge that would connect Sevoke Bazaar (around 12km from Siliguri) with Ellenbari in the Dooars had been delayed.

“The minister has recently sent a letter to me, mentioning that the state PWD has been asked to prepare the DPR and it has also written to the railways as they need 20.69 hectares of railway’s land for the bridge. It would ease the pressure on the Coronation Bridge and would be an alternative bridge to cross the Teesta. I am pursuing it with the railways so that there are no hold-ups later,” the MP said.

The bridge that has been planned 7km downstream the Coronation Bridge would be 1.6km long.

“Considering the strategic location of our area, the proposed bridge has its own importance. At Damdim in the Dooars, the Union defence ministry has decided to develop an airbase and this bridge will connect Ellenbari, that is 10 to 15km away,” said a retired army officer.

Additional reporting by our Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar correspondents