Faridabad/Alive News: Launching of super structure shall be completed in May’23 Indian Railways is edging closer to connecting Kashmir Valley to the rest of the railway network.
The country’s first cable-stayed rail bridge, the AnjiKhad Bridge is part of the crucial Udampur-Srinagar-Baramulla (USBRL) railway project in Jammu and Kashmir. It is an asymmetrical cable-stayed bridge balanced on the axis of a central pylon and is being built in the challenging terrain of young fold mountains of Himalayas in extreme geographical conditions.
History has been created when all the 96 cables of this bridge were fully installed in position successfully on 26th April,2023 in a record time period of 11 months (June’2022 to April’2023) in spite of all constraints. AnjiKhad Bridge is an engineering marvel and it is the “first cable-stayed bridge” on Indian Railway connecting Katra to Reasi in Jammu & Kashmir on the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Railway Line project.
The total length of the bridge is 725 m which includes 473 m long asymmetric cable stay bridge balanced on the axis of a central pylon of height 193m from the top of foundation, standing at a height of 331 metres above the river bed. The cable stay bridge has 290 m span on the north side (Katra Side) while 183 m span on the south side (Reasi side). The bridge has a single line railway track and a 3.75m wide service road.
The strands for this bridge is specifically designed with 15.7 mm diameter and has three layer of protection i.e. Zinc coated, wax filled plus PU / HDPE cover over the strands. The cable’s length ranges between a minimum of 80 m up to 295 m as a maximum. The stay cables are composed of 31, 37 or 43 strands.
Anji Cable Stay bridge is designed with a total 96 cables i.e. 48 cables each on Lateral and Central spans. The cables totally weigh 848.7 MT and the total length of cable strands involved is 653Km.
As on date, 44 segments out of total 47 segments have been launched which required support of stay cables. Now, balance three segments shall be launched without stay cables as per design. Launching of the super structure shall be completed in May’23.
