The Arch Bridge
World's Highest Bridge in India
railway officials say the bridge, Which
is Five times more than delhi’s qutub minar and way higher than the Eiffel tower
in paris, will be completed by December 2016.
The Arch Bridge Will Connect Baramulla
To Jammu Via Udhampur-Katra-Qazigund with a travel time of six-and-a-half hours.
Currently, it takes exactly double the
time – 13 hours – to reach jammu from baramulla in northern Kashmir, which is
60 km from Srinagar. The Construction of the bridge started in 2002 when Atal
Bihari Vajpayee was the prime minister.
It got stopped in 2008 when the project
was announced to be unsafe. However, the construction restarted in 2010. It has
been as a national project now. The Bridge is coming up at Salal Village in
Reasi.
Challenges:
At a height of 359 metre to the project, the
strong wind in the area was a big threat to the project.
“The Weather in the region gets worse in no
time due to the Himalayan range. At such height, the bridge can lose shape due
to strong winds, which is why, we have made a special design for this project,”
Said B.D.Garg, chief administrative officer of this project in Northern
Railway.
The bridge project has been allotted to afcons
india private Ltd and we have also hired consulting agency from Denmark,” he
added.
The area is made of lime stones that often
cause landslides during rainy season. Keeping this in mind, The Bridge is being
in an arched shape.
For
the entire project, railways have constructed around 250 km approach roads at
the approximate cost of 2,000 crore. The most difficult phase of the project
now is the construction of the section between banihal and katra. Most tunnels
on the entire stretch falls in this section.
The 1.3 km long bridge is being
constructed between salal A and salal B stations. It will be able to take the
load of 18 train coaches at one time and project officials are using steel girder
plates to install it using cable cranes.
The steel plates have been procured
from the bhilai plant of steel Authority of India while the girders are
assembled at a fabrication workshop built adjacent to the bridge.
“Each girder plate is eight metre long
and we have estimate that 161 girders will be required for the purpose, “ said
saumendra Roy Chaudhary, GM, Afcon.
As the design of the bridge is in
curvature shape, special arrangements are being made for launching the deck
girder. A steel structure is the most preferred choice at such locations s it
can absorb force without damage.
The arch shape, invented by Romans,
requires less material for construction and it is easier to repair. Such
bridges exist in only about six other countries.
Rail Link for Katra
From April Onwards, pilgrimage to
Vaishno Devi will become convenient. Railway officials say about 20% work of
the project has been completed with trial runs on the 25-km-long Udhampur-Katra
rail section likely to start by the end of next month.
The work on Qazigund-Baramula section
has already been completed and is likely to be opened for public in 3 phases.
The first Phase of construction of a 66-km-long stretch between Anatnag and
Rajwansher has been in use since October 2008.
Of the 25km Udhampur-Katra rail
section, 11 km are being constructed in tunnels with nine major and 29 minor
bridges. The project cost has touched 923 crore till now. The entire project
has been allotted to two contractors – Konkan railway corporation Ltd and Afcon
India Pvt Ltd.
Salal village lacks basic
Infrastructure. “We have to go to Katra or Jammu travelling four
No comments:
Post a Comment