In a first, Srinagar will be linked to the rest of India after the golden joint of world's highest Chenab railway bridge is launched today. “This has been a long journey. The term 'Golden Joint' was coined by civil engineers.... It's the world's highest railway bridge,” Sanjay Gupta, chairman & MD, Konkan Railway told news agency ANI.
Know About The Chenab railway bridge
The bridge is 1315m long and 359 metre in height,making it taller than the Eiffel Tower. The bridge will connect the Salal-A and Dugga railway stations on either side of the bridge with the mighty River Chenab in Reasi district.
The world’s tallest railway bridge is built at an estimated cost of Rs 28,000 crore as part of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Railway (USBRL) project.
It is a major achievement towards the completion of the 111 km long Katra-Banhal railway section, for which massive Himalayan hills are being mined.
Out of the 111 km, 97 km of tunneling was to be done for the project. Such a scale of tunneling was never done in any other part of the country, news agency ANI reported. Almost 86 km of tunneling work has been completed so far. Built on Darya Chenab, the arch of this bridge is capable of withstanding wind speeds of upto 266 km per hour.
The number of pillars is 17, while 28,660 metric tonne of steel was used in its construction, at an estimated cost of Rs 1,486 crore. The weight of the installed arch is 10,619 metric tonne. The steel used in the structure is suitable for temperatures ranging from minus 10 degrees Celsius to minus 40 degrees Celsius.
The bridge will have a minimum lifespan of 120 years and is being built for trains at a speed of 100 km. This bridge has the ability to withstand blast load and severe earthquakes.
The bridge has 93 deck segments, each weighing about 85T, launched simultaneously on reinforced steel arches from both ends. Work is underway on five.