Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday inaugurated the world's highest railway bridge, the Chenab Bridge. The bridge has now been opened for train traffic and has become a historic achievement of Indian engineering. A professor from the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore has also played an important role in this.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the world's tallest Chenab railway bridge on Friday. The work that was going on for many years has finally been completed and this world's tallest bridge has been opened for train traffic. A professor of the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore also played a role in its construction. G. Madhavi Latha, a rock engineering expert from the IISc Civil Engineering Department, played an important role in the construction of the Chenab Bridge for about 17 years.

Madhavi Lata has guided the construction work at the request of Afcons, the contractor of the Chenab bridge. A report in 'Deccan Herald' said that Madhavi Lata has guided the stabilization of the slope of the bridge and laying the foundation. Built at a cost of Rs 1,486 crore, the bridge is said to be capable of withstanding the harshest natural conditions for more than a century. At a height of 359 meters from the river bed, the Chenab Rail Bridge, connecting two hills between Katra and Qazigund, is the world's highest railway arch bridge, higher than the Eiffel Tower.

The bridge project began in 2005. The work was completed in 2022 with successful trial runs of full-speed trains, Madhavi Lata was quoted as saying by Deccan Herald. The 1,315-metre-long bridge is an important part of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla railway connection and has also set an important milestone in the field of Indian engineering. The report quoted her as saying that there were concerns about stability as the gaps between the rocks at the base of the bridge were very large.

Also, the slopes were very steep. Thus, one of the primary challenges was the construction of foundations for the arch supports and columns on the slopes. The foundation of the bridge was made large and deep to withstand winds blowing at a speed of 220 kilometres per hour. The report also states that the area where the bridge is built is prone to earthquakes, which is a big challenge for the engineers.

We have made modifications to the design keeping all these factors in mind. For example, the foundation has been shifted slightly from where it should have been in the original plans. In such cases, we cannot do rigid design. In the initial years, Lata also had another scientist from IISc as a project advisor. But he left the project after a few years. Later, Lata took over the work herself until the bridge was completed in 2022.

PC:TV9Bharatvarsh