World’s highest single arch railway bridge Chenab Rail Bridge in J&K gets Golden Joint

In Jammu and Kashmir, the world’s highest rail bridge over the Chenab river in the Kouri area of Reasi district achieved another milestone yesterday when the overarch deck of the bridge was completed with a golden joint.

The golden joint shall now pave the way for engineers to lay tracks on the bridge. With tracks over it, Kashmir will be linked with the rest of India via rail network for the first time since Independence.

An elated Surender Mahi, chief administrative officer of the USBRL Konkan Railways said, engineers faced several challenges but at last gifted engineering marvel to the people of India.

He said, To achieve this feat, we had sought technical expertise from IIT-Roorkee, IIT-Delhi, Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore, DRDO, national remote sensing agency, GSI and other agencies. This is the highest railway arch in the world. The bridge is 35 meters higher than Eiffel Tower, he said.

Afcons is building 16 additional railway bridges for Konkan Railway Corporation Limited (KRCL) in the dangerous terrain of Jammu and Kashmir in addition to the Chenab Bridge.

All the bridges are part of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) project.