Pictures: JK’s Chenab bridge beats Eiffel Tower, is so breath-taking too

The world’s highest railway-arch bridge that stands higher than the Eiffel Tower will soon be thrown open in Jammu and Kashmir.

The bridge between Bakkal and Kauri in Reasi district is being built at a height of 359 m (1,178 ft) above the Chenab river, which is 35 metres taller than Paris’ Eiffel Tower.

The ₹1,486 crore bridge will boost rail connectivity to the Kashmir Valley, which the Railways Ministry says, is the biggest civil-engineering challenge faced by any railway project in India in recent history.

Key features

The Chenab bridge is 473.25 metres long, with its viaduct 120 metres long and the central embankment 94.25 metres, and is supported by 96 cables. The arch weighs 10,619 MT.

The bridge is designed jointly by Viaduct & Foundations: M/s WSP (Finland); Arch: M/s Leonhart, Andra and Partners (Germany), and Foundation Protection: Indian Institute of Science Bangalore.

The construction process involved fabrication of 28,660 MT steel, over 10 lakh earthwork and 66,000 cum concrete, besides developing 26 km of motorable road.

The bridge is being built using the most sophisticated ‘Tekla’ software for structural detailing.

Unique features

The Chenab bridge is designed to withstand high wind speed up to 266 km/hour. It will remain operational at a restricted speed of 30 Km/hour even after the removal of one pier/trestle.

For the first time, a Phased Array Ultrasonic Testing machine was used for testing welds in an Indian Railways project.

Around 584 km welding was done to join different parts of the structure, which is close to the distance between Jammu Tawi to New Delhi.

Another interesting fact about the bridge is that the height of the cable crane’s pylon at Srinagar end is 127 metre, which is taller than Qutub Minar of 72 metres.