Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said that Chenab Bridge, a railway bridge in the making over Chenab River, will achieve another "engineering milestone".
Goyal said that it is being primed to be the world's highest railway bridge. It will be ready by March next year.
"Infrastructural Marvel in Making: Indian Railways is well on track to achieve another engineering milestone with the steel arch of Chenab bridge reaching at closure position. It is all set to be the world's highest Railway bridge," Piyush Goyal tweeted.
Railway officials have stated that the bridge will stand 359 metres above Chenab’s river bed and will be 35 metres taller than the Eiffel Tower. It will be constructed over a 111 km-stretch under the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) project.
The length of the bridge will be 1,315 metres with 17 spans, of which the span of the main arch across Chenab river will be 467 metres.
Work on the steel arch began in November 2017 and is part of a pioneering project which aims to connect this area in Jammu and Kashmir to the rest of the country.
The project, which is being developed by the Konkan Railway, is India's first cable-stayed Indian Railways bridge and will be a part of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) section of Northern Railway in Jammu & Kashmir.
The construction of Chenab bridge started in 2004, but the work was stopped in 2008-09 keeping in mind the safety of rail passengers because of the frequent high-velocity winds in the area.
At the time of the launch of the project, railway ministry officials had said that the bridge will be able to withstand high-intensity blasts and will also have a "security setup" against possible terror threats.
