Jammu: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Friday inaugurate the Chenab bridge, the world’s highest railway arch bridge. He will also flag off Vande Bharat trains between Katra and Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir.
The PM will visit Jammu and Kashmir on June 6. He will visit the bridge deck around 11 am. Thereafter, he will visit and inaugurate the Anji bridge. He will flag off Vande Bharat Trains around 12 pm. Thereafter, he will lay the foundation stone, inaugurate and dedicate to the nation multiple development projects worth over Rs 46,000 crore at Katra.
#WATCH | Prime Minister Narendra Modi to inaugurate the Chenab Bridge on 6th June. This is the world’s highest railway bridge located in Jammu and Kashmir. The bridge is a part of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Railway Link, a 272-kilometre-long project. pic.twitter.com/ofT67aJIFp
— ANI (@ANI) June 4, 2025
“An architectural marvel Chenab Rail Bridge, situated at a height of 359 meters above the river, is the world’s highest railway arch bridge. It is a 1,315-metre-long steel arch bridge engineered to withstand seismic and wind conditions. A key impact of the bridge will be in enhancing connectivity between Jammu and Srinagar. Through Vande Bharat train moving on the bridge, it will take just about 3 hours to travel between Katra and Srinagar, reducing existing travel time by 2-3 hours. The Anji Bridge is India’s first cable-stayed rail bridge that will serve the nation in a challenging terrain,” an official statement read.
The Chenab Rail Bridge
The rail bridge is part of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail link project. The government has said it is arguably “the biggest civil-engineering challenge faced by any railway project in India in recent history”. Approved back in 2003, it more than two decades for this bridge to come up.
The bridge is 35 metres higher than the Eiffel Tower in Paris and nearly five times the height of Qutub Minar. A whopping 28,660 megatonne — 2,86,60,000 kg — of steel suitable for use in temperatures ranging from -10 degrees Celsius to 40 degrees Celsius has been used to build the bridge, reports claimed.
It needed to be strong enough to support railway movement and withstand bad weather. Decades of research, consultation and work have led to the bridge’s construction.
The bridge is designed to withstand high wind speeds up to 266 km/hour and earthquakes of the highest intensity. The bridge is designed in such a way that even if a pier supporting the structure gets damaged, it can be operational and trains can pass through at a low speed.
