The Chenab Bridge, the world’s highest rail viaduct linking Kashmir Valley with the rest of the country by rail route, is designed to withstand 40 kg of TNT blast and earthquake of magnitude 8 on the Richter Scale.

The upcoming “man-made wonder”, being built under the direct supervision of the PMO and Railway Board, is likely to be completed by December 2021, said Chief Engineer (Coordination) R.K. Hegde of Konkan Railways, which is executing the project.

A national project with 100 per cent of central funding, the bridge is being built on the Chenab river between Bakkal and Kauri in the Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir.

After the completion of the bridge, the Chenab river will boast of having the world’s highest rail bridge - 359 metres above the river and around 35 metres taller than the Eiffel Tower.

The bridge forms a crucial link in the 111-km stretch between Katra and Banihal, which is part of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail link project, said Hegde.

“So far, 83 per cent of the work has been completed. For the overall completion of the Chenab bridge project, the deadline is December 2021,” he said.

Once completed, it will surpass the record of Shuibai Railway Bridge (275 metres high) on the Beipan river in China, he said.

The bridge construction, which was halted in 2008 due to concerns over its safety and alignment, was restarted in 2010. It has already missed many deadlines in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019.

The construction started in 2002 when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the prime minister.

On the bridge’s sturdiness, Hegde said, “It can withstand high-intensity blasts of up to 40 kg of TNT and an earthquake of magnitude 8 on the Richter Scale. Even after the blast, a train can run at a speed of 30 km/h.”

Blasts of such intensity cannot damage any of the bridge pillars either, he added.

To ensure its sturdiness, the bridge is being built with 63-mm thick special blast-proof steel owing to Jammu and Kashmir’s propensity to frequent terror attacks, he said.

Even the concrete pillars are designed to withstand explosions and painted with a special corrosion-resistant paint, which lasts for 15 years, he said.

Detailing various measures to make the bridge blast-proof, Hegde said, “It is for the first time that self-compacting concrete is being used for filling steel boxes and ends of plate girders.”

Konkan Railway has also set up a blast lab at the site to test the strength of the steel plates to withstand blasts of up to 40 kg of TNT.

“Before being used in the project, each high-grade steel plate is being tested at the project site itself for its capacity to withstand the blast load,” said an engineer at the lab.

Steel plates for the bridge have been procured from the Bhilai plant of Steel Authority of India Ltd, while the girders are assembled at a fabrication workshop adjacent to the bridge.

“Each girder plate is 8 metres long and we have estimated that 161 girders will be required for the purpose,” he said.

The bridge, a 1.315-km-long engineering marvel, is also designed to withstand wind speeds of up to 260 km per hour.

“The railways will also install sensors on the bridge to check the wind velocity and as soon as the wind speed exceeds 90 km/h, the signal on the track will turn red, preventing train movement,” the engineer said.

According to the plan, a ring of aerial security will also be provided to safeguard the bridge.

“An online monitoring and warning system will be installed on the bridge to protect passengers and trains in critical conditions,” he added.

The Chenab Bridge, an arched steel and concrete structure, will connect Baramulla to Jammu via Udhampur-Katra-Qazigund with a travel time of six-and-a-half hours.

Currently, it takes exactly double the time, 13 hours, to reach Jammu from Baramulla in northern Kashmir, which is 60 km from Srinagar.

On measures to make the bridge quake-proof, Konkan Railway chairman Sanjay Gupta said a detailed, site-specific seismic analysis has been carried out by experts from IIT Roorkee and IISc, Bangalore.

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