After 20 Years: India's "World's Tallest Railway Arch Bridge" Opens, Modi Unveils It and Praises It as Taller Than the Eiffel Tower

The Chenab Bridge, the core project of USBRL (Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Railway Line), is dubbed the "world's tallest railway arch bridge" by Indian media. Spanning the Chenab River, the bridge is 1,315 meters long with a main span of 467 meters, a deck width of 17 meters, and a height of 359 meters above the river valley. Its main arch features a double-sided steel truss structure, with hollow box-shaped sections for arch ribs and piers filled with M40 concrete, designed for a 120-year service life and a maximum speed of 100 km/h.Constructed with over 30,000 tons of special steel, the bridge is equipped with multiple protections: resistance to -20°C low temperatures, magnitude-8 earthquakes, force-12 winds, and explosion-proof design capable of withstanding high-intensity impacts.

Planning began in 2002, with an original completion target of 2009. However, India's domestic team failed to solve wind resistance design challenges, forcing the hiring of Polish bridge experts and delaying the schedule to 2016. Construction further stalled due to issues with structural closure, which Polish engineers identified as a quality problem. Eventually, an international engineering team was brought in at high cost. The main arch was successfully closed in 2021, the first train test passed in June 2024, and the bridge was officially opened in June 2025, spanning a 23-year construction period.