SRINAGAR: Indias ambitious project of building the world’s highest mega-arch bridge on the river Chenab on the long-pending rail link to the Kashmir valley has taken a dent after an official committee expressed concerns on the safety and stability of the bridge.
The four-member committee headed by Indias Metro Man Elattuvalapil Sreedharan submitted its 31-page report to railway minister Suresh Prabhu and made it unanimously clear that “on this score alone, we are unable to endorse” the critical section across the Himalayan barrier from Katra to Banihal leading to Kashmir.
The committee listed out eight reasons for holding that the safety factor of the 359-metre high bridge was “inadequate” to dampen the euphoria created in 2002 when the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee touted the bridge as a “signature bridge” and declared it as a “national project.
The report, underscores the dangers posed to the mega-arch bridge by earthquakes, landslides and the proximity to the line of control.
The committee observed, “If this bridge is damaged, its restoration will take five to six years minimum. It added, as a result, the link to Kashmir Valley may remain disrupted for years together.
This damning report comes at a time when there is optimism in the country about speeding up infrastructure projects though railway engineers have not been able to start constructing even the foundation of the mega-arch.
The potential threats to the mega-arch is a major reason why the Katra-Banihal section, originally due to be executed by 2007, is nowhere near completion even after Rs 4,000 crore has so far been spent.
The committee, therefore, recommended the scrapping of the present alignment of 126km between Katra and Banihal, skirting along the mountain slopes and geological fault lines. The alternative it suggested is a shorter and straighter alignment of 70km cutting through the mountain ranges, shifting the location of the Chenab bridge from the gorge to the floor of the valley and thereby reducing its height from 359 metres to 120 metres.
The alternative alignment cutting across mountain ranges and folds at right angels and tucked deep in the mountains is the right solution the committee said, though it is being questioned by experts working on the field. The committee found it to be “a practical and adoptable alignment, which could set the trend for similar railway projects being contemplated by the government in the Himalayan region.
In a stinging indictment of the railway board, the Sreedharan committee said that if “the present pattern and style of implementation is followed”, the project already delayed by eight years would not be completed “by any stretch of imagination” in another eight years.
The bridge touted as the world’s highest railway bridge is expected to be 35 metres taller than the Eiffel Tower when completed. The arch-shaped steel structure is being constructed over the Chenab River to link sections of the spectacular mountainous region of India’s northern Jammu and Kashmir state.
The bridge is expected to be 359 metres (1,177 feet) high when completed — surpassing the world’s current tallest railway bridge over the Beipanjiang River in China’s Guizhou province, which stands at 275 metres high.
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