Union Railways Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said the iconic steel arch of the rail bridge over Chenab River in Jammu and Kashmir is reaching a closure position.
Taking to Twitter, Goyal shared a photo of the bridge and wrote: "Infrastructural Marvel in Making: Indian Railways is well on track to achieve another engineering milestone with the steel arch of Chenab bridge reaching at closure position. It is all set to be the world's highest Railway bridge."
The bridge is dubbed as world's highest railway bridge at 1.315-km. It is being built above the Chenab River at a height of 359 metres from the sea bed level in Jammu and Kashmir.
After the completion of the bridge, the Chenab Bridge will boast of having the world's highest rail bridge -- 359 metre above the river and around 35 metres taller than the Eiffel Tower. The bridge will have two stations at both the ends. Konkan Railway is executing the Rs 12,000-crore Chenab rail bridge project.
Talking of the bridge sturdiness, Chief Engineer (Coordination) R K Hegde of Konkan Railways had told PTI that the bridge is designed to withstand 40 kg of TNT blast and earthquake of magnitude 8 on Richter Scale. "It can withstand high-intensity blasts of up to 40 kgs of TNT and an earthquake of magnitude 8 on Richter Scale. Even after the blast, a train can run at a speed of 30 kmph," he had said.
The bridge will be a key link in the 111-km stretch between Katra and Banihal which is part of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla section of the Kashmir Railway project.
The construction started in 2004, but the construction of the bridge was halted in 2008 in wake of concerns over its safety and alignment. The construction of the bridge was again restarted in 2010. It has already missed many deadlines in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2019.
