Katra: Constructing the world`s tallest railway bridge on the Chenab river, Konkan Railway Corporation, as a part of the Kashmir rail link project, plans to spend Rs 400 crore this fiscal, a top official has said.
"Last financial year, we had spent Rs 244 crore on this project. This year, we target to spend around Rs 400 crore as we plan to complete excavation work on five tunnels this fiscal end," Konkan Railway Corporation, executive director for projects, Rajesh Agarwal told a news agency here.
The Corporation has already spent Rs 1,464 crore till last month from the time the project was taken up in 2002, Agarwal said.
The Corporation has a mandate of executing 70 km of the 328-km Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail link.
It has set a target of completing the excavation work of the five of the 18 tunnels by next March-end, Agarwal said, adding that the excavation work on two of these tunnels has already been completed.
"So far five tunnels are through," he added.
Of the most tedious but the marvel of the entire project is the construction of the 1,315 metre long Chenab bridge, involving an investment of over Rs 512 crore.
The bridge, the work of which is being carried out by the Mumbai-based Afcons Infarastructure Limited, will have a height of 359 meters over the Chenab, 65 km from Katra.
Once completed, the bridge will be taller than the celebrated Eiffel Tower of Paris by a wide margin of 35 meters.
"The 1,315-metre long Chenab bridge with a central span of 467 metres will use up 25,000 million tonne steel and will be the highest in the world and it will be an engineering marvel once completed considering the steep topography and fragile geology of the region," Agarwal said.
At present the world`s tallest rail bridge is on the Tarn river in France.
PTI
