Who Is Madhavi Latha, Professor Who Spent 17 Years Building World's Tallest Chenab Railway Bridge Project

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the world's highest railway bridge on Friday, the Chenab Bridge in Jammu and Kashmir, which is built at a cost of Rs 1,486 crore. G Madhavi Latha is one of the major contributors to the successful construction of the engineering marvel. A professor at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru, she was involved for 17 years in the Chenab Bridge project as a geotechnical consultant.

The major challenges in building the bridge was the height and dimensions of the bridge, steepness of slopes, harsh terrain, heterogeneity and anisotropy of the rock mass with closely spaced joints, presence of the river below the bridge, adverse climatic conditions, very high wind speeds and seismicity of the location.

Who Is G Madhavi Latha?

Latha is presently a Higher Administrative Grade (HAG) professor at IISc. Dr Latha completed her B.Tech in Civil Engineering in 1992 from the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, where she scored first class with distinction. 

She earned a gold medal as an M.Tech student at the National Institute of Technology, Warangal. Latha specialised in Geotechnical Engineering. Dr Latha completed her doctorate from IIT-Madras in 2000 in Geotechnical Engineering.

Recognising her contributions, she was bestowed with several awards. In 2021, she received the Best Woman Geotechnical Researcher Award. In 2022 Latha was named in the Top 75 Women in STEAM of India.