India’s longest bridge inspires a festival in Assam

SADIYA Organisers hope to cash in on the winter traffic, to pitch for official recognition THE BRIDGE, STRATEGIC FROM THE DEFENCE POINT OF VIEW, IS EARTHQUAKEPROOF AND IS DESIGNED TO WITHSTAND THE WEIGHT OF A 60TONNE TANK

GUWAHATI: You just need a reason to celebrate. In the case of Assam’s easternmost town, it’s a bridge.

The Dr Bhupen Hazarika Setu or Dhola-sadiya bridge, India’s longest at 9.15km, has inspired the Sadiya festival that began Sunday. The venue is on the sandbank below the bridge that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated in May.

A local youth club in Sadiya, about 550km east of Guwahati, has organised the festival on the banks of river Lohit that the bridge spans.

“The bridge is more than just a structure. It connects Bhupenda’s (Hazarika) birthplace to the country beyond besides bridging the gap between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh adjacent to Sadiya. This is more than a reason for us to celebrate,” Abhijit Koch of Nizarapara Youth Club and the chief organiser of the festival told HT.

The club expects to run the festival through the winter months when people go for outings.

“Every day, 10-12,000 vehicles cross the bridge but there is hardly any facility for people to take a break. We have made arrangements so that people can get off the approach of the bridge, have fun with recreational activities and ethnic food, and carry on to their destinations,” Koch said.

Koch said the festival is the outcome of community effort, but the club hopes the government will eventually recognise it as an official annual event.

To drive home the point, the club got local BJP legislator Bolin Chetia to inaugurate the festival.

The festival has packaged a range of adventure sports such as parasailing and dirt bike racing besides campfires and other usual fares.

The bridge, strategic from the defence point of view, is earthquake-proof and has been designed to withstand the weight of a 60-tonne battle tank. President Ram Nath Kovind said Manipur is not on India’s periphery but has historically been at the heart of the country’s imagination. Manipur, specifically Moreh, is the