Railway engineers, working on the dream project of constructing worlds' tallest railway bridge to provide all weather rail connectivity to Kashmir valley, are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
According to their latest assessment, “the highest railway bridge, coming up over river Chenab in Reasi district of Jammu, has reached at a stage where they are expecting to complete all works by the end of December 2021”.
Chenab bridge, at 359 m above river bed and having 467 m of single arch span across mighty Chenab river, will be highest Railway Arch Bridge in the world. This iconic bridge soaring 359 metres above the bed of the River Chenab will be 35 metres higher than the iconic Eiffel Tower in Paris.
Chairman and Managing Director of Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd, Sanjay Gupta,told reporters in Jammu, “The Udhampur — Srinagar- Baramulla Rail Link Project is the most challenging project being undertaken post-independence “.
He said it has reached at a stage where we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and in a very short time, probably by the end of December 2021 we should be able to complete all works and have a train run through from Katra to Kashmir valley”. Railway engineers claimed, “passengers will reach Kashmir valley in less than 5 hours from Jammu and the total journey time between Delhi and Kashmir valley will be reduced to around 12 hours”.
Gupta said, the benefits of this national project are going to be huge. “It will provide all weather rail connectivity to the Kashmir valley, and it will help in supply of all kinds of commodities to the valley and also for export of produce from the valley”. From the strategic point of view, all weather rail connectivity will help Indian Armed forces and paramilitary troops to reach Kashmir valley in a short span of time.
Interacting with the media in Jammu, after reviewing the progress of the ongoing construction work, Gupta said, “ once completed the national railway project will give impetus to the tourism to a great extent and it will help boost the economic activity in the region and also along the route of the train”. We are already witnessing many changes in the socio-economic profile of the local residents in the area ever since construction work of the railway bridge started.
“Earlier we used to see only temporary structures and now concrete houses have come up in the region. We now even spot two wheeler and at some places four wheelers parked inside the houses” Gupta added.
Referring to challenges faced by the engineers on ground zero, Gupta said, the alignment of the project passes through three major geological thrust zones namely Reasi, Muree and Pir Panjal thrust. Constructing large number of tunnels in the region was one of the biggest challenges.
He said, there are 17 tunnels aggregating length of 46.1 Kms. So far, Konkan Railway has completed tunnel excavation of 37.1 kms out of 46.1 kms. The works are in progress for rest of the four tunnels, he added.
The Tunnels on this project are being constructed using the state of art technology of New Austrian Tunnelling method (NATM)) and conventional method. Out of the 17 Tunnels, 13 Tunnels have been made through and work in progress in balance tunnels.
Highlighting the features of the arch bridge, Chief Public Relations Officer, Konkan Railway, LK Verma said, This is the first time in India that this technique has been successfully carried out and USBRL team need special commendation for having successfully executed the work. Fabrication work of the super structure of this viaduct was carried out by installing and commissioning of an extremely efficient and technically superior workshop at the site.
Verma said, “The erection of Arch from both ends with the help of cable crane is under process. It consists of 2 nos. Arches (One upstream and other downstream) joined by wind bracings together parabolic in shape having crown at 359.0 m height from river bed making it World Highest Railway bridge”.
Till date, erection of 5462 MT out of 9010 MT has been completed. State of the Art technology is being used to control the Geometry of the Arch, Verma added.