Context:
The Railways said it had completed the arch closure of the 1315m Chenab bridge, the world’s highest railway bridge.
Relevance:
Prelims, GS-III: Industry and Infrastructure (Transport and Connectivity related infrastructure)
Dimensions of the Article:
- About the Chenab Bridge
- Chenab valley
- Recently in news: Ratle Hydroelectric Project
About the Chenab Bridge
- It is one of the biggest civil engineering challenges faced by any project in India and at 359m above the river bed level, the bridge would be 35 metres higher than the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
- The Chenab bridge is part of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail link project (USBRL) and completion of the steel arch is an important construction milestone.
- The Northern Railways undertook the project of constructing a new railway line across Jammu and Kashmir between the towns of Udhampur in Jammu and Baramulla on the northwestern edge of the Kashmir Valley. This project was declared a national project in 2002.
- A challenging aspect of this project is building a large number of runners – a total of 63 km – in the rugged and mountainous terrain of the Himalayas.
Chenab valley
- Chenab Valley, also known as the Chenab Region, is the river valley of the Chenab River flowing through the Kishtwar, Doda, and Ramban districts of Jammu Division in Jammu and Kashmir, India.
- Erstwhile Doda lies between the middle and outer Himalayan range in the Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir.
- The area is an active seismic zone.
Recently in news: Ratle Hydroelectric Project
- Ratle Hydroelectric Project is a run-of-the-river hydroelectric power station on the Chenab River, Kishtwar district of the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
- The Project includes a gravity dam and two power stations adjacent to one another.
- Pakistan has frequently alleged that it violates the Indus Water Treaty, 1960.
Click Here to read more about the Ratle project
-Source: The Hindu
