India’s first cable-stayed rail bridge nearing completion in Jammu and Kashmir after 20 year delay

The Anji Khad bridge is a part of a 326-km rail line connecting Udhampur to Baramulla via Srinagar, under the Indian Railways’ ambitious plan to seamlessly connect Kashmir to Jammu, and the rest of India.

Twenty years in the making, the delayed construction of the Anji Khad bridge in Jammu’s Reasi district is a major chink in the Indian Railways’ ambitious plan to seamlessly connect Kashmir to Jammu, and the rest of India.

After missing multiple deadlines, including those in 2017 and 2022, the ₹400 crore project to build India’s first cable-stayed rail bridge is finally nearing completion. “We will launch the superstructure deck of the bridge by the first week of May. Ancillary works like fine tuning the cabling, deck casting, linking of railway tracks will then follow, which will be critical to completion of the project,” a senior official working on-site told The Hindu.

Perched precariously over the Anji Khad river that swells every monsoon season, the bridge is supported by a single pylon — a large vertical tower-like structure — soaring 1,086 feet from the river bed, similar to the height of a 77-storey building. Surrounded on both sides by mountain peaks, the construction site is subject to billowing, gusty winds.

The official, who did not wish to be named, said that the structure of the bridge itself could sustain winds blowing up to 216 kilometres per hour. “However, every time the windspeed surpasses 45 kmph, construction work, including laying casts, has to be stopped, due to the risk of machinery, like tower cranes, swaying,” the official explained. A running train, whose speed limit would be restricted to 30 kmph, can sustain a wind speed of up to 90 kmph, added the official.

After the bridge is completed, it will pave the way for a single broad gauge track for trains connecting Jammu to Baramulla via Srinagar along a 326 km railway line.

The project was commissioned by the Northern Railways and is being executed by Konkan Railway Corporation Limited (KRCL) and Hindustan Construction Company. “Konkan Railway has prior experience of executing the largest railway project of the century in Asia. It cut through ghat sections and built 96 tunnels while building a 756 km railway line connecting Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka,” said a senior KRCL official.

However, engineers at the bridge site said that the execution of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail link project, pegged at over ₹37,000 crore, is more challenging due to persistent climatic issues and the treacherous nature of the difficult Himalayan terrain. Two months ago, a worker died after sustaining multiple injuries while conducting a slope stability survey on site, officials said.