World’s Highest Railway Bridge In Jammu & Kashmir: India is rapidly enhancing its infrastructure and connectivity. Recently, the Indian Railway successfully conducted the first trial run on the world's highest railway bridge - Chenab Bridge - in Jammu and Kashmir. It was conducted on Thursday with an eight-coach MEMU train, paving the way for the start of rail service on the route from Reasi to Baramulla in Kashmir.


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“Trial run was conducted on a 46-km-long electrified line section between Sangaldan in Ramban district and Reasi at a speed of 40 kmph,” the Railway Ministry said in a statement. “It was successfully carried out starting at 12:35 pm from Sangaldan and reaching Reasi at 2:05 pm. On the way it passes through nine tunnels with a combined length of 40.787 km and longest tunnel T-44 of 11.13 km,” it added.


According to the ministry, it was the first ever full train that crossed over the iconic bridge between Dugga and Bakkal stations across the Chenab river, which is the world’s highest arch railway bridge, developed under the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) project.


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The USBRL project, including the 48.1-km-long Banihal-Sangaldan section,  was inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi on February 20, 2024. It was declared as “National Project” in 2002. Phase I of the project, covering the 118 km long Qazigund-Baramulla section, was inaugurated in October 2009 under the Congress-led UPA govt. Subsequent phases saw the inauguration of the 18 km long Banihal-Qazigund section in June 2013 and the 25 km Udhampur-Katra section in July 2014.


The USBRL Project involves 38 Tunnels (combined length of 119Km), the longest Tunnel (T-49) has a length of 12.75 Km and is country’s longest transportation tunnel. There are 927 bridges (combined length of 13 Km), including the iconic Chenab Bridge (Overall length- 1315 M, Arch span- 467 M, Height- 359 M above river bed) which is around 35 metres taller than the Eiffel Tower and is pegged to be the World’s highest arch railway bridge.


(Source- PTI)