Rajendra Setu was the only bridge that carried railway tracks across the Ganges in the state of Bihar till 3 February 2016.

[8][9][10] On 22 December 1996 Former Prime Minister H. D. Deve Gowda laid the foundation stone for the construction of the railway bridge over Ganga at Sonepur.

[21] The doubling of railway tracks on the bridge started in May 2018,[22] and is being done at an estimated cost of Rs 156.09 crore and will be completed by December 2019.

[25] The Digha–Sonepur rail bridge was officially inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 12 March 2016.

A new railway station Digha Bridge Halt (दीघा ब्रिज हॉल्ट) was constructed 3 km north from Patliputra Junction, near Danapur Bankipur road and opened for passengers on 25 November 2017.

[32] Ram Vilas Paswan was then the Union Railway Minister and he lent his support to the Gulzarbagh-Hajipur site, as Hajipur was the constituency from which he was elected.

In the wake of the conflicting support of the political heavy weights, disturbances broke out at Sonepur.

[34] The proposal to construct the bridge was mentioned in the union budget of 1997-98 and at that time the estimated cost was ₹600 crores.

Initially, six services will utilize the bridge connecting Patna with North Bihar and parts of Uttar Pradesh.

[36][37] Many of long distance Patna-bound trains going to northeast have already been shifted to this northerly route easing the burden on the heavily congested Mughalsarai-Patna rail line.

[38] In May 2016, Roll-on/roll-off (RO-RO) service was introduced from Bihta (private freight terminal) to Turki station in Muzaffarpur district covering a distance of 88 km through the Digha–Sonepur rail-cum-road bridge.