Title - India joins the superlative club, we now have the world's highest rail bridge : North, News - India

Touted as the next man-made wonder, the world's highest rail bridge being built across Chenab riverbed in Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir will take at least three more years to be functional.

Railway officials say the bridge, which is five times more than Delhi's Qutub Minar and way higher than the Eiffel Tower in Paris, will be completed by December 2016.

The arch bridge will connect Baramulla to Jammu via Udhampur-Katra-Qazigund with a travel time of six-and-a-half hours.

Currently, it takes exactly double the time - 13 hours - to reach Jammu from Baramulla in northern Kashmir, which is 60 km from Srinagar. The construction of the bridge started in 2002 when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the prime minister.

It got stopped in 2008 when the project was announced to be unsafe. However, the construction restarted in 2010. It has been declared as a national project now. The bridge is coming up at Salal village in Reasi.

Challenges

At a height of 359 metre, the strong wind in the area was a big threat to the project.

"The weather in the region gets worse in no time due to the Himalayan range. At such height, the bridge can lose shape due to strong winds, which is why, we have made a special design for this project," said B.D. Garg, chief administrative officer of this project in Northern Railway.

"This bridge project has been allotted to Afcons India Private Ltd and we have also hired consulting agency from Denmark," he added.

The area is made of limestones that often cause landslides during rainy season. Keeping this in mind, the bridge is being made in an arched shape.

For the entire project, railways have constructed around 250 km approach roads at the approximate cost of Rs.2,000 crore. The most difficult phase of the project now is the construction of the section between Banihal and Katra. Most tunnels on the entire stretch falls in this section.

The 1.3-km-long bridge is being constructed between Salal A and Salal B stations. It will be able to take the load of 18 train coaches at one time and project officials are using steel girder plates to install it using cable cranes.

The steel plates have been procured from the Bhilai plant of Steel Authority of India while the girders are assembled at a fabrication workshop built adjacent to the bridge.

"Each girder plate is eight-metre long and we have estimated that 161 girders will be required for the purpose," said Saumendra Roy Chaudhary, GM, Afcon.

As the design of the bridge is in curvature shape, special arrangements are being made for launching the deck girder. A steel structure is the most preferred choice at such locations as it can absorb force without damage.

The arch shape, invented by Romans, requires less material for construction and it is easier to repair. Such bridges exist in only about six other countries.

Rail link for Katra

From April onwards, pilgrimage to Vaishno Devi will become convenient. Railway officials say about 30 per cent work of the project has been completed with trial runs on the 25-km-long Udhampur-Katra rail section likely to start by the end of next month. The work on Qazigund-Baramulla section has already been completed and is likely to be opened for public in three phases. The first phase of construction of a 66-km-long stretch between Anantnag and Rajwansher has been in use since October 2008.

Of the 25 km Udhampur-Katra rail section, 11 km are being constructed in tunnels with nine major and 29 minor bridges. The project cost has touched Rs.923 crore till now. The entire project has been allotted to two contractors -Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd and Afcon India Pvt Ltd.

Salal Village lacks basic infrastructure. "We have to go to Katra or Jammu travelling four to five hours to see doctors," said Baldev Singh Nambardaar of Salal. "We want the railways to adopt this village..." The project has already given jobs to 500 locals.