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Which Indian engineering feat is this the last block of?
The Chenab Rail Bridge is a steel and concrete arch bridge between Bakkal and Kauri in the Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir.
The bridge spans the Chenab River at a height of 359 m (1,178 ft) above the river, making it the world's highest rail bridge. In November 2017, the base supports were declared completed allowing for the start of the construction of the main arch. The bridge was fully completed and was inaugurated in August 2022.
With the last part of the bridge now in place, this implies that - for the first time ever since independence, Srinagar will be linked to the rest of India by railway. The geology, the harsh terrain, and the hostile environment were just a few of the challenges that the engineers and railway officials had to overcome to get to this point. Some interesting facts about the world’s highest railway bridge:
The bridge is 1315 m long.The bridge is 35 m higher than the Eiffel Tower in Paris.It took over 1300 workers and 300 engineers to complete the bridge.The arch of the bridge has steel boxes.The overall weight of the arch is 10,619 MT.The bridge can withstand high wind speed up to 266 km/hr.Nearly INR 1486 crore has been spent on the construction of the bridge.Not only is the bridge expected to give a tremendous boost to the economy of J & K, it will also boost quality of life and critically, it will be of strategic significance in this sensitive border region.
