PM Modi to inaugurate Rs 1486 cr Chenab Rail Bridge this week

Ziraat Times Team Report

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to travel to Jammu & Kashmir this week to inaugurate the much-awaited Chenab Rail Bridge, the world’s highest railway bridge. The event will be followed by the opening of the Katra-Srinagar Vande Bharat train service. The 1.31-km bridge, approved 22 years back in 2003, has been built at a cost of 1,486 crore.

Once operational, about eight million people of Kashmir region eagerly look forward to using the train services to travel to other parts of the country and beyond in a much needed respite from high cost air travel. Businesses and fruit industry are also pinning their hopes for this train service to reduce freight costs and create a more reliable transportation link between Kashmir and rest of the country.

The Chenab bridge is part of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link, a 272-km project carved through some of the most geologically complex terrains on earth. The railway project has cost over Rs 42,000 crore. The railway line is composed of over 90 per cent of this route built on 943 bridges and 36 major tunnels, including T-50, India’s longest railway tunnel stretching 12.77 km.

The bridge is designed to withstand high wind speeds up to 266 km/hour and earthquakes of the highest intensity. The bridge is designed in such a way that even if a pier supporting the structure gets damaged, the bridge will continue to be operational and trains can pass through at a low speed, officials maintain.

The rail bridge is part of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail link project and the government has said it is arguably “the biggest civil-engineering challenge faced by any railway project in India in recent history”. Approved back in 2003, the bridge has taken over two decades to complete.

Standing 359 metres above the river bed level, this is the highest railway bridge in the world. A whopping 28,660 mega tonnes – 2,86,60,000 kg – of steel suitable for use in temperatures ranging from -10 degrees Celsius to 40 degrees Celsius has been used to build the bridge. The 1.31-km bridge has been built at a cost of 1,486 crore.

The rail bridge is part of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail link project. Approved back in 2003, the bridge has taken over two decades to complete.