Nitin Gadkari says Rs 1,176 crore six-lane bridge will be built on NH-10 over Teesta river connecting North East, Sikkim and Siliguri corridor

Road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday announced that his ministry has cleared Rs 1,176 crore for a new six lane bridge over the Teesta river. The bridge, running 6.9 km with its approaches, will come up at Sevoke on NH-10 in Darjeeling district, one of the busiest road stretches feeding into Sikkim.

Gadkari shared the details in a post on X, framing the bridge as more than just another river crossing. According to him, the project is meant to ease the movement of both people and freight through a corridor that carries a disproportionate amount of traffic for its size, given how much of India's access to the North East runs through this narrow belt of land.

Gadkari has approved a new bridge over the Teesta river

The existing road network around Sevoke has long struggled to keep pace with traffic heading towards Sikkim and the North Eastern states. A six lane bridge replacing the current crossing is expected to cut bottlenecks at a point where road capacity has not grown in step with demand from tourism, trade and defence movement in the region.

How will the bridge help connectivity between Sikkim and the North East
"The proposed bridge will significantly strengthen connectivity between Sikkim, North Eastern states and Siliguri Corridor, facilitating smoother movement of passengers and freight," Gadkari said. He added that better infrastructure here would help cut travel time, ease congestion and make movement of goods and services more efficient, with benefits for local communities, businesses and the wider regional economy.

Why does the Siliguri corridor matter
The Siliguri corridor, often called the Chicken's Neck for how narrow and vulnerable it looks on a map, is the only land link connecting the North Eastern states to the rest of India. Any disruption here, whether from traffic, weather or security concerns, cuts off road access to an entire region. A wider, stronger bridge at Sevoke is being pitched as one way to reduce that vulnerability while also supporting everyday civilian travel.

What other North East highway projects has Gadkari announced recently
The Teesta bridge is not an isolated announcement. Earlier the same week, Gadkari had revealed a Rs 61,500 crore, 630 km highway corridor connecting Siliguri with Guwahati and Shillong, built through a mix of new construction and upgrades to existing roads. A separate expressway linking Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh with Siliguri is also being developed, with the ministry positioning both projects together as a faster road link between UP and the North East once complete.

How big is the current highway push in this region
Assam alone currently has 265 road projects under construction, spread across close to 4,700 km and carrying a combined cost of nearly Rs 2 lakh crore. Another 31 projects covering about 1,470 km, worth roughly Rs 92,000 crore, are in the pipeline. The Teesta bridge and the Siliguri Guwahati Shillong corridor add to what is already one of the largest clusters of highway spending anywhere in the country right now.

Will the Teesta bridge connect with the bigger North East corridor plan
The Sevoke bridge sits right at the gateway the new corridor is meant to pass through, linking Siliguri with points further into Assam and Meghalaya. Officials have described the North East push as a layered one, with the Teesta bridge handling local and cross border traffic into Sikkim, while the longer corridor and the Gorakhpur expressway carry traffic further east, toward Guwahati, Shillong and eventually Silchar.

What happens next on the Teesta bridge project
With the funding approved, the next stage involves finalising contractors and construction timelines for the Sevoke stretch, a process the ministry has not yet detailed publicly. Given the scale of parallel projects already running in the region, officials are expected to fold updates on the bridge into broader briefings on the Siliguri Guwahati Shillong corridor rather than treat it as a standalone update, going forward.

Inputs from TOI