PM Modi inaugurates world's highest railway bridge over Chenab in J&K

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday inaugurated the world's highest railway bridge over the Chenab river, which was completed at a cost of Rs 1,486 crore in more than eight years.

The prime minister then walked on the bridge holding the tricolour.

After the Chenab bridge, Modi inaugurated India's first cable-stayed rail bridge over the river Anji.

Before the inauguration, Modi travelled in a rail engine coach to reach the spot.

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah were present on the occasion.

The architectural marvel Chenab rail bridge, situated at a height of 359 metres above the river and 35 metres higher than the iconic Eiffel Tower in Paris, is a 1,315-metre-long steel arch bridge engineered to withstand seismic and wind conditions.

The bridge forms a crucial link in the 111-km stretch from Katra to Banihal, and its construction was approved in 2002, but the work started only in 2017. Before the construction, 26 km of approach roads and a 400-metre-long tunnel were built to reach the site, railway officials said.

The cable crane was commissioned on August 31, 2013, for the erection of a steel arch, trestle and piers. In 2017, an incremental launch over a 2.74-degree circular and a transition curve of 268 metres length was successfully done for the first time in the Indian Railways.

Joining of the 467-metre-long arch span was the most critical activity, the officials said, adding precision was to be maintained so that both ends of the arch meet with no error to ensure a perfect fit of the last segment of the arch.

The arch closure ceremony was conducted in April 2021, while the other major milestone was the 'Golden Joint' of the deck. The 785-metre-long deck superstructure was launched from both Kauri and Bakkal ends and was finally joined over the arch.

The Golden Joint ceremony was conducted on August 13, 2022.

The Anji bridge is the second-highest railway bridge after the iconic arch bridge over the Chenab at nearby Kauri.

In October 2016, the railway decided to build a cable-stayed bridge at Anji Khad after the plan to build an arch bridge similar to the Chenab bridge was abandoned due to the vulnerability of the structure, primarily due to concerns over the geological stability of the region.

This asymmetrical cable-stayed bridge crosses the deep gorges of the Anji river, a tributary of the Chenab river, and is located in the young fold mountains of the Himalayas, having extremely complex, fragile and daunting geological features in the form of faults, folds and thrusts and besides seismic proneness of the region.

According to railway officials, the total length of the bridge is 725 metres. It consists of an ancillary viaduct, an approach bridge and a central embankment.

It has been designed to handle heavy storms, strong winds and even explosions. The total deck width of the bridge is 15 metres.

The Anji bridge has a support of 96 cables varying from 82 metres to 295 metres, officials said.