Chenab Railway Bridge

Chenab Railway Bridge

The 1,315-metre long Anji Khad Bridge is the world’s highest railway bridge on Chenab, a tributary of river Indus, in Jammu and Kashmir. Standing at a height of 359 metres above the river bed level, the bridge is 35 metres higher than the Eiffel Tower in France. Built at a cost of Rs. 1460 crores, it required almost 584 kilometers of welding to join the different parts of the structure and its blast proof arch alone weighs 10,619 metric tonnes. The bridge can sustain wind speeds of 266 km/hr. A train can run on a reduced speed of 30 km/hr on the bridge. This civil engineering wonder should be commissioned by December 2022, reducing the road travel distance between Katra and Banihal by half. This apart, the bridge finally ensures that Kanyakumari in the south is now connected to Kashmir in the north by rail as well.