World's Highest railway bridge 'Chenab Bridge' gets golden joint; will launch soon

New Delhi: The world's highest railway bridge, Chenab bridge which is 1315 m long completed its golden joint, as this project is near the final stage. The bridge will be soon open for the general public.

In April 2021, the Chenab Rail Bridge's arch was completed and it is expected to open to rail traffic in December 2022. In June 2022 about 90% of construction work has been completed and is now confirmed to make the bridge operational by December 2022

The design and construction were awarded to Afcons Infrastructure, a part of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group, the third-largest construction group in India, with the help of IISc Bangalore. Major construction decisions were taken by Konkan Railway Corporation.

 DRDO helped in the design of the bridge, making it blast-proof using special steel.

The extraordinary challenge lies in a large number of tunnels (totaling 63 km in length and bridges (7.5 km) to be implemented in highly rugged and mountainous terrain, with the difficult Himalayan geology. The most difficult part is believed to be the crossing of the deep gorge of the Chenab River, near Salal Hydro Power Dam, by the Chenab Bridge.