| The bridge over the Chenab River will connect the main Kashmiri city of Srinagar with mainland India. Modi has praised the bridge as a “growing prowess of India in the field of modern engineering.”
Read Rifat Fareed’s report
The world’s highest railway bridge is expected to open soon in India-administered Kashmir — connecting the remote Himalayan region with India’s vast railway network.
The bridge will dominate over the Chenab River at 359 meters (1,177 ft) high and 1,315 meters long. Constructed at a cost of $168 million (€156 million), the railway bridge is 35 meters taller than the Eiffel Tower.
The bridge is part of India’s ambitious 272-kilometer-long (169 miles) Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail link project (USBRL), with construction work starting more than two decades ago.
The arch bridge across the Chenab River is built in an area prone to high seismic activity, rough terrain, and hostile weather conditions. But engineers say the bridge is strong enough to withstand an earthquake of up to eight on the Richter scale, and is expected to have a lifespan of 120 years.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has been overseeing the project himself, praised the bridge as a “growing prowess of India in the field of modern engineering and technology.”
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government also considers the bridge crucial to bringing further development to the region under direct federal rule.
Indian federal Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw called it a strategic project.
“Connecting Jammu and Kashmir through rail is one of the toughest engineering challenges in the world,” he said, adding that the railway network to Kashmir will be completed later this year or early next year.
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