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JAMMU: The world’s highest rail bridge on the Chenab river in Jammu and Kashmir, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 6, has become a craze among air travellers flying to Srinagar.
According to a press statement issued by the railway ministry, flight pilots are making special announcements and passengers are showing eagerness to capture photographs of the Chenab Bridge, the world’s highest railway-arch bridge.
“The Chenab Bridge draws admiration from every altitude, where pride rises from the earth and echoes through the clouds,” Dilip Kumar, Executive Director, Information and Publicity, Railway Board, said on Sunday.
“These days, every flight that passes over the majestic valleys of Jammu and Kashmir witnesses a truly special moment. As the aircraft approaches the Chenab valley, the pilot’s voice echoes through the cabin: ‘Below you is the world’s tallest railway-arch bridge, the Chenab Bridge’,” he added.
The moment the announcement is made, passengers rush to the windows and start recording videos and clicking pictures of this historic marvel on their mobile phones.
“A wave of pride sweeps through the cabin — passengers clap, smile and share words of admiration for the brilliance of Indian engineering,” the press note said.
Days after its formal inauguration, even down below, the enthusiasm is equally contagious, it added.
Railway officials stated that locals from nearby villages and mountainous regions are seen taking photographs and recording videos of the bridge from different vantage points.
“Some are live-streaming the moment, while others are sharing it instantly across Instagram and Facebook,” an official said.
According to Kumar, while flights soaring through the skies have become viewing galleries of the Chenab Bridge, people on the ground are busy capturing the awe-inspiring creation, preserving a piece of history to share with future generations.
“It is a historic moment where India carved through the Himalayas to script an engineering triumph,” Kumar said.
Part of the ambitious Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) project, the Chenab Bridge is the highest railway-arch bridge in the world.
Soaring 359 metres above the riverbed, it spans the Chenab river near the Salal dam and stretches a total length of 1,315 metres.
Its main steel arch alone measures 467 metres and is built to withstand wind speeds up to 266 kilometres per hour.
It rises 35 metres higher than the Eiffel Tower and stands nearly five times taller than the Qutub Minar.
A staggering 28,000 metric tonnes of steel went into crafting the monumental structure.
For the first time in its history, the Indian Railways deployed a cutting-edge cable-crane system, featuring two massive cable cars and pylons over 100 metres tall, to bridge the 915-metre-wide gap.
