Nation's 1st cable bridge for trains almost ready

Tribune News Service

Shubhadeep Choudhury

Reasi, March 25

Ninety per cent of the work of Anji Bridge, being built over Anji gorge near Katra in Jammu and Kashmir, is complete. It is the country’s first “cable-stayed bridge” for movement of trains.

Being built at an altitude of 876m from sea level, the bridge consists of 47 sections. Forty-one out of the 47 sections have been already installed.

The project, estimated to cost about Rs 500 crore, was awarded to Konkan Railway Corporation Limited (KRCL) by Northern Railway. KRCL has entrusted the work to Mumbai-headquartered Hindustan Construction Company (HCC). HCC is executing the work under the supervision of Northern Railway and KRCL. Having a length of 473.25m, Anji Bridge is supported by 96 cables which are hooked to a single main pylon. The cables are of varying lengths ranging from 82m to 295m. “Trains can move on the bridge at a speed of up to 100 km per hour,” said Sandeep Gupta, Chief Engineer, Northern Railway. Acknowledging that the bridge is being constructed in a seismic zone, Gupta said that experts from IIT Roorkee studied the history of the intensity of tremors in the area and then recommended perimeters for building the bridge. The design has been prepared by state-run Italian company Italferr.

Besides having a single track for operations by broad gauge trains, the bridge will also have a road (3.75m wide) for emergency use. Total width of the bridge will be 18m.

“Ninety per cent of the work is complete. We are giving the finishing touches now,” said Gupta. The installation of a new section takes around 10 days, including time taken to give finishing touches to various mechanical aspects of the job, engineers working on the bridge said. At this rate, the bridge should be ready in the next two months.

Anji Bridge, which is part of the Katra-Banihal section of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) project, will connect Reasi with Katra and pave the way for the much-awaited rail connectivity between Jammu and Srinagar.

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw today said at Srinagar that USBRL would be completed by January-February 2024.

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