World's tallest rail bridge on way

Srinagar, Apr 30: The world's tallest and third longest railway bridge is under construction over river Chenab in Jammu and Kashmir while the work is in progress to built India's longest tunnel crossing through the Pir Panjal range of Himalayas to connect Banihal with Lower Munda, Northern Railway sources said today.

The 'Chenab Bridge' to be constructed over Salal Dam in Reasi by the Konkan Railway Corporation would be 362 m in height and 1315 m in length.

The bridge, designed by Kortes of Finland and Leonhard Andra and Partner of Germany, would be constructed at a cost of Rs 512 crore in about 30 months.

The foundation stone of the bridge was laid by Konkan Railway Corporation Chairman and Railway Board member (Engineering) R R Jaruhar on March 28 this year.

The railway bridge would be trussed steel arch having a span of 480 m and about 26,000 metric tonne structural steel would be used in its construction for which auxiliary cable way type of bridge will be used.

The work on another bridge across the river Anji has also already started.

The 10.96-km tunnel on Laole-Qazigund section of the ambitious 120-km Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla new broad gauge railway line project will cross through the Pir Panjal range and connect Banihal with Lower Munda and eventually the rest of the country with Kashmir through rail.

The 'Pir Panjal Tunnel' will be constructed by the Hindustan Construction Company (HCC), which has bagged the total orders worth more than Rs 580 crore on the project.

The sources said the Qazigund-Baramulla section of the project would be completed within the target period by December 2007 as about 70 per cent construction work has been completed so far.

However, they said the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla project would not be completed on its specified target of 2008-09 due to various reasons.

''There are many challenges in the project. There is mountaineous terrain besides the geological, climatic and man-made challenges have made this a gigantic project. The project will not meet its specified target period because of all these reasons. The entire project comprises 70-80 per cent tunneling work, which is even more challenging,'' the sources said.

However, they said both the Chenab Bridge and the Pir Panjal Tunnel would be built within the target period of 2008-09.

The sources said the Konkan Railway has been entrusted with the construction work of the most critical and difficult section between Katra and Laole in the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramullah project due to its expertise.

After inspecting the construction work on the raliway project, Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had said that the improved rail connectivity between Jammu and Kashmir and other parts of the country will give an impetus to trade in the state.

UNI