The world’s highest rail bridge is being constructed over river Chenab, in J&K at a cost of $92 million. When completed in 2016 the bridge will be 35 metres taller than Eiffel Tower and five times as high as Qutub Minar. The bridge is expected to be 359 metres (1,177 feet) high, taller than the world’s current tallest railway bridge over the Beipanjiang River in China’s Guizhou province (275 metres). It will be made of 25,000 tonnes of steel transported by helicopters over difficult terrain.
The constructing of the new railway line between Udhampur near Jammu and Baramulla on the northwestern edge of the Kashmir Valley is being supervised by Northern Railway.
The extraordinary challenge lies in a large number of tunnels totaling 63 km in length and long 7.5 km bridges in highly rugged and mountainous terrain. The most difficult part is the crossing of the deep gorge of the Chenab River, near Salal Hydro Power Dam.
The Bridge was originally expected to be completed in December 2009 but the project shelved because of lingering doubts over the bridge’s safety and stability in September 2008.
The design of major arch rail bridges requires a number of additional parameters, such as fatigue, global stability, second order effects, composite action, etc. It also requires that such a bridge is designed to achieve a consistent level of reliability for all load cases, and that the design standards match the construction standards.
The work restarted in 2010 and was scheduled for completion in 2015.
The construction was awarded to Afcons Infrastructure Limited, a part of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group, the third-largest construction group in India.
As things stand today almost 80% of the work has been completed and the bridge is expected to be functional by December 2021.
