A deck closure ceremony marked the completion of golden joint work at iconic arch bridge on river Chenab – the highest railway bridge in the world – on Saturday.  

The Indian Railways is constructing the 1315m long bridge which will connect the Kashmir valley to the rest of the nation. At 359m above the river bed level, it is 35 meters higher than the iconic Eiffel Tower in Paris.

"Golden joint work completed. Deck closure ceremony at the world's highest rail bridge. Jai Hind!" tweeted Railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw along with a video.   

Golden joint work completed.
Deck closure ceremony at the world’s highest rail bridge.
Jai Hind 🇮🇳!#ChenabBridge #ArchBridge pic.twitter.com/bqUYLcTJhv

— Ashwini Vaishnaw (@AshwiniVaishnaw) August 13, 2022

The railway bridge is a part of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail link Project (USBRL) having length of 272km from Udhampur to Baramulla which will connect Anantnag, Pulwama, Sopian, Badgam, Srinagar and Baramulla districts to the rail network.

"We can confidently state that the bridge would be roughly 98 per cent complete after the golden joint is finished," Giridhar Rajagopalan, Deputy Managing Director of Afcons, was quoted as saying by news agency ANI today.

Unique features of the Chenab bridge:

• Bridge designed to withstand high wind speed up to 266 km/hour
• Bridge designed for blast load in consultation with DRDO for the first time in India
• Bridge will remain operational at restricted speed of 30 km/hour even after removal of one pier/trestle
• Bridge designed to bear earthquake forces of highest intensity zone-V in India
• First time in the history of Indian Railways, a Phased Array Ultrasonic Testing machine used for testing of welds
• A NABL accredited lab established at site for weld testing for the first time
• Approximately 584km welding done to join the different parts of structure, which is to the tune of distance between Jammu Tawi to New Delhi
• Height of cable crane's pylon at Srinagar end is 127m, which is much taller than Qutub Minar (72m)
• Launching of curved viaduct portion done for first time in Indian Railways using End Launching Method
• Extensive health monitoring and warning systems planned through state-of-art instrumentation

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