Yes, you are reading it right and Indian railways has recently launched main arch on the reckoned world’s highest bridge that is on River Chenab. This main arch as per the information will be about 359 meters above the River Chenab bed and about 30 meters higher than the beautiful and amazing iconic Eiffel tower in Paris. Located in Jammu and Kashmir’s Reasi district, it will help in providing direct connectivity to the magnificent Kashmir valley. This bridge is going to make the important link in between Banihal and Katra at a distance of 111 km stretch that will also be a part of Udhampur Srinagar Baramulla segment.
In accord to MK Gupta, Member Engineering of Railway Board stated, “We have launched the main arch and started the work on the installation in between two sides of the bridge”. This launch is a worthy initiative taken by them as it required carrying of heavy segments from the Kauri and Bakkal two ends of the bridge and involves the longest cable crane arrangement. Total cost that is going to be incurred in this 1.3 stretched bridge is Rs 1,250 Crore. It is been done by the well reckoned AFCONS and is known to get completed by May, 2019. Adding to this, the design of the bridge is been like it will sustain earth quake of magnitude 8 without any problem. Both national and international consultants are engaged at the varied stages and phases and slope stability, seismic studies and detailed geo physical studies will be taken care of while planning and execution.
As per the officials, the bridge erection in itself is a project and 2 self propelled auxiliary cable cranes are going to be used to tow auxiliary temporary ropes across the pylons and ropes will be used to support the arch parts. The launch will be executed in a series of steps and increments so that if anything additional needs to be added afterwards, it could be done in subsequent additions. Also, three big workshops have been commissioned for the fabrication of steel structure at Katra end and Srinagar end of the bridge.
The cable crane assembly involving pylons is the longest in the world supposed to be spanning about 915 meters. As per the sources, more than 300 engineers along with over 1300 workers have been working 24*7 in order to complete the bridge by 2019. The construction already began in 2004 but it has been put to an end during the fiscal 2008-09 considering the rail passengers safety due to high velocity frequency winds in that area. The wind velocity touched 90 kmh speed and it was measured with the help of an automatic signalling system as well as anemometer and keeping safety of passengers in mind, the work has been stopped. The lifespan of the bridge will be about 120 years and will be able to withstand wind speed up to 260 kmh. Whereas, on the other side of the Chenab river, Indian Railways is been focusing on constructing three bigger sized tunnels of different lengths involving T 3 (9.369 km), 2 (5.9 km) and T 14 (13 km).