Decked with the national flag, the ‘Golden Joint’ of the Chenab railway bridge was launched & thereby inaugurating the World’s highest railway bridge.
The world’s highest bridge in Reasi district of J&K was decked up with the Tricolour by the workers on this occasion.
“The workers were seen celebrating and hoisting the national flag with love and pride right in the middle of the bridge at the golden joint.”
“From the two ends of the Chenab River valley, the bridge superstructure on the arch was gradually pushed so that it eventually connected at the centre of the arch. This has been a long journey.
“The term ‘golden joint’ was coined by civil engineers. It’s the world’s highest railway bridge.“
The bridge comprises 93 deck segments, each weighing around 85 tonnes, launched simultaneously from both ends of the valley over the massive steel arch and work on joining five segments in full progress on the single line linking Katra (Jammu) with Qazigund (Kashmir), some 75 km away.
The project is part of the ambitious 272-km long railway line from Udhampur to Baramulla joining Jammu with the Kashmir valley as an all-weather highspeed alternative, named the ‘Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link Project’.
The bridge has so far gobbled up around 30,350 tonnes of steel, comprising 10,620 tonnes to build the gigantic arch and 14,500 tonnes for the bridge deck, and stands majestically near the Kauri village upstream of Salal Dam.
Normally, bridges are built incrementally on a straight or curved platform with a uniform radius, and executing launching activities in inclement weather with stormy winds was extremely challenging, and Northern Railways and Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd played a big role in finalising the bridge design.
Given the height, the extreme weather conditions, and strong gales that often lash the valley, the sophisticated automatic signalling system installed on both sides will stop the trains from crossing the bridge if wind speeds there touch 90-kmph.
The access roads to the project site helped generate local employment while providing connectivity to several remote villages in the region, the fabrication work was carried out in workshops at both ends with the heavy and bulky segments transported to the launch pad using a specialised modular trailer.
The Afcons team of engineers had designed a launch platform with a segment lifting capacity of 120 tonnes for a height of around 39 metres, and developed and implemented several other innovations to overcome the various challenges of the treacherous mountainous terrain.
“The 272-km long railway line will have 38 tunnels (total length of 119 km) with the country’s longest tunnel T-49 (12.75 km), 927 big and small bridges (total length of 13 km), and mark a new era in the development and progress of Jammu & Kashmir.”