Railway completes first phase deck slab casting of Anji bridge

A major milestone was achieved on the under construction Anji Khad cable-stayed bridge on Katra-Banihal section of USBRL project, when couple of days back the phase-I of the Deck slab casting 196.25 m in length was accomplished.

The under-construction Anji Khad bridge, part of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) project, will connect Katra and Reasi areas through rail link. The bridge will stand at a height of 331 metres above the river bed – higher than the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The total length of the bridge is 473.25 metres and it is supported by 96 cables.

Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh while haling the achievement in his Tweet said, “Another major infrastructural milestone achieved! Northern Railway completes launching of girder of Bridge No 43 in Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramula (USBRL) Rail link project”

Ashutosh Gangal, General Manager Northern Railway informed that work on the remaining 111 km section of the 272 km long Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link project which will connect Jammu to Kashmir by a broad-gauge rail line is ongoing at a fast pace. The section has many construction marvels. One of them is the Indian Railway’s first cable-stayed bridge, the ‘Anji bridge’. It is being built across a deep gorge, the Anji Khad.

The Bridge south-east of the Iconic Chenab Bridge is situated between tunnel T-2 and T-3 and will connect the temple town of Katra to the district headquarter Reasi by rail. The Anji Khad Bridge is an asymmetrical cable-stayed bridge balanced on the axis of a single central pylon. The pylon is 193 m in height from the top of the foundation. The bridge stands at a height of 331 m above the river bed. The total length of the Bridge is 726 m while the Main Bridge portion has a length of 473.25 m. The Bridge will be supported by 96 cables having varying length from 82 m to 295 m.

The construction work of the pylon has been completed and the construction of the deck is underway. The deck is a 15m wide composite steel girder having a depth of 10 m. The deck casting in phase-1, 196.25m in length involved 370 MT of reinforced steel and continuous pouring of 900 cubic meter concrete. This activity was critical as the next phases of segmental deck laying and supporting the structure by cables will follow after this.

The Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail link is deemed to be one of the most difficult projects undertaken in the Indian subcontinent. The bridge has been designed to withstand storms and strong winds. Given the complex geology of the high-altitude region, constructing the bridge is very challenging. The Railways has divided the 272-km rail link into three subsections.

In October 2016, the Railways had decided to use cables to support the Anji Khad bridge as it would be impossible to build an arch similar to the iconic bridge being built over the Chenab river in the Union Territory. Because of this, the Anji bridge has a single pylon. The pylon had to be constructed on a vertical slope by using micropyles of 40 metres in depth, officials had said earlier. The Railways is using the Pump Concreting System to increase efficiency and give greater safety to workers.