New Indian rail bridge to dwarf Eiffel Tower

Jammu: The world’s highest railway bridge, 35 metres taller than the Eiffel Tower, is coming up in the Himalayas. It will be completed by 2016, as a showpiece of India’s engineering skills.  

The arch-shaped steel structure is being constructed over the Chenab River to link sections of the spectacular mountainous region of India’s northern Jammu and Kashmir state.

The bridge is expected to be 359 metres (1,177 feet) high when completed – surpassing the world’s current tallest railway bridge over the Beipanjiang River in China’s Guizhou province, which stands at 275 metres high.

“It is an engineering marvel. We hope to get this bridge ready by December 2016,” a senior Indian Railways said. “The design would ensure that it withstands seismic activities and high wind speeds.”

Work on the bridge started in 2002 but safety and feasibility concerns, including the area’s strong winds, saw the project halted in 2008 before being green-lighted again two years later.

The estimated cost of the project, which is being handled by Konkan Railway Corporation, a subsidiary of state-owned Indian Railways, is $92 million.

The bridge will connect Baramulla to Jammu in the Himalayan state with a travel time of six-and-a-half hours, almost half the time it currently takes.

The 1,315-metre long bridge will use up to 25,000 tonnes of steel with some material being transported by helicopters due to the tough terrain, they said.

“One of the biggest challenges involved was constructing the bridge without obstructing the flow of the river,” the railways official said.