On 6 June 2025, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Chenab Railway Bridge. The world’s highest railway arch bridge connects the Kashmir Valley to the rest of India.
This is more than a bridge. It is a symbol of unity, resilience, and India’s unyielding spirit to conquer the impossible.
Soaring 359 metres above the Chenab River, the 1,315-metre-long steel arch bridge is built to withstand high seismic and wind loads. It will reduce travel time between Jammu and Srinagar by two to three hours.
PM Modi also inaugurated the Anji Bridge, India’s first cable-stayed railway bridge, constructed in one of the most challenging terrains in the region. Before the inauguration, PM Modi inspected the Chenab railway arch bridge and reviewed the project on-site.
The Chenab Bridge is part of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail project (USBRL), a strategic and symbolic push to strengthen connectivity in Jammu and Kashmir. Spanning 272 km and built at a cost of approximately ₹43,780 crore, USBRL project includes 36 tunnels totaling 119 km and 943 bridges, ensuring all-weather rail connectivity to the Kashmir Valley.
T G Sitharam, Chairman, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), who was a geotechnical consultant for Chenab Bridge, notes that for him it is the fulfilment of a dream — a 15-year journey of science, sweat, and soul.
He mentions that the Chenab gorge, with its fractured rock masses, high seismic activity, and unpredictable terrain, required a fundamentally different approach. It wasn’t about applying textbook theories alone; it was about adapting to nature’s will while ensuring safety, strength, and sustainability.
Seeing the bridge soar 359 meters above the Chenab River, taller than even the Eiffel Tower, is nothing short of breathtaking. The Chenab Bridge is more than a technical achievement — it is a story of human endeavour, of teamwork, of innovation under pressure, and above all, of patriotic purpose.
This bridge has now physically united the Kashmir Valley with the rest of the country. But more importantly, it has emotionally united all Indians — engineers, planners, workers, and citizens — in a shared dream that has finally come true.
Dr. G Madhavi Latha, a professor at the Indian Institute of Science, was a geotechnical consultant in the construction of Chenab railway bridge. While media outlets and social media users rushed to celebrate her as a singular hero behind the engineering marvel, Latha rejected the narrative. “Please remember that I am one of the thousands who deserve appreciation for Chenab bridge,” she wrote in a widely shared LinkedIn post. “All glory of the planning, design and construction goes to Indian Railways and AFCONS.” “Please don’t make me unnecessarily famous,” she added.
Her contribution, she clarified, was in the specialized area of slope stabilization and foundation design on difficult terrain — a critical but narrowly defined responsibility in a project that required the coordinated effort of hundreds of engineers, workers, and planners over several years.
