Tale of tunnels and bridges: Railway’s mammoth Himalayan project to link J&K with the rest of India

Indian Railways achieves milestone in connecting Jammu & Kashmir with iconic bridges on challenging Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Railway Link.

As the first electric locomotive rolled through a tunnel and onto the majestic Anji Khad Cable Bridge in the Reasi district of Jammu & Kashmir on Christmas Day, the Indian Railways took another leap in its mammoth task of connecting the Union Territory with the rest of the country with a dedicated broad gauge railway link.

This iconic cable bridge—a first for the railways—and the great Chenab Bridge, the highest railway bridge in the world, are two engineering marvels among the 943 bridges built to cover the 272 km Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Railway Link (USBRL) project, an undertaking with an outlay of ₹37,000 crore.

The project has been in the works for the past two decades, with engineers and workers toiling round the clock in the unforgiving Himalayan terrain, braving ice-cold weather, chilly winds and dizzying heights. Keeping their morale up is the critical nature of the rail line: a reliable all-weather transportation system that will benefit locals, tourists, pilgrims and troop movement.

According to railway officers, it is the “most challenging work undertaken post independence by the railways” as the alignment entails the construction of 38 tunnels with a combined length of 119 km. This includes the longest transportation tunnels ever built in India such as the Sumber-Arpinchala (T-49) of 12.75 km and the Pir Panjal (T-80) 11.2 km.

A select group of journalists from the State were recently shown the works nearing completion on the predominantly tunnelled 111 km Katra-Banihal section. This segment is considered the most difficult for the construction of a new line owing to the varied Himalayan geology and deep riverine gorges.

Anji Cable and Chenab bridges are easily the mega structures out of the 37 bridges constructed on this section, and their work is worth chronicling. The ₹1,486 crore 1.32 km Chenab Bridge has been built 359 metres above the riverbed with 17 spans on two huge arches.

“We had to build a 400-metre tunnel and 26 km of approach roads to reach the site. For the past 10 years, 2,200 men worked 24 hours to install the steel arches, piers, etc. The two foundation bases at each end are equal to half a football ground each. The world’s largest cable crane (915 metres) was built for carrying 20 tonnes of material,” said project in-charge deputy chief engineer R.R. Mallik.