"India's First Cable-Stayed Rail Bridge Is Ready": Railway Minister Posts Video

Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw today shared a timelapse video of the making of the Anji Khad bridge, which is now ready for use. This is India's first cable-stayed rail bridge, which has 96 cables. The total length of cable strands is 653 km.

The timelapse video was shared with a caption that reads, "In 11 months, India's first cable-stayed rail bridge is ready. All 96 cables are set! #AnjiKhadBridge PS: Total length of cable strands 653 km".

Every single cable's placement, from the first to the last, is seen in the video.

The bridge is constructed in the Reasi district of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir under the most challenging Udampur-Srinagar-Baramulla-Rail Link (USBRL) Project of Indian Railways.

The bridge is about 80 kilometres by road from Jammu.

Anji Khad Bridge is the country's "first cable-stayed bridge" on Indian Railways, connecting Katra and Reasi in Jammu and Kashmir. The bridge is a part of the national project, the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) Project.

The bridge is located in the young fold mountains of the Himalayas, which have extremely complex, fragile, and daunting geological features in the form of faults, folds, and thrusts, besides the seismic proneness of the region. Detailed site-specific investigations were carried out by IIT, Roorkee, and IIT, Delhi.

Slopes of the mountain supporting one foundation of the main span have been stabilised by a special hybrid foundation on the Katra end due to space constraints.

The major portion of the bridge works, including the main pylon with a 40-metre-deep hybrid foundation, the central embankment, and the ancillary viaduct, were carried out on the Srinagar end.

The total length of the bridge is 725.5 metres. Considering the ease of construction and typical site conditions, the bridge has been divided into 4 parts: a 120 m long approach viaduct (called an "ancillary viaduct") on the Reasi side, a 38 m long approach bridge on the Katra end (CA2), the main bridge, crossing the deep valley (473.25 m cable-stayed portion), and the central embankment (94.25 m), located between the main bridge and an approach (ancillary) viaduct.

The main bridge over Anji is a cable-stayed bridge with a total length of 473.25 m and a main span of 290 m. Anji Khad Bridge connects tunnels T2 and T3 on the Katra-Banihal Section of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link project.

This bridge has a single main pylon of 193 metres in height from the top of the foundation, standing at a height of 331 metres above the river bed.

The total length of the bridge is 725 m, consisting of the main bridge with a length of 473.25 metres, an ancillary viaduct of 120 metres in length, an approach bridge of 38 metres on the Katra end, and the central embankment of 94.25 metres in length.

It is an asymmetrical cable-stayed bridge balanced on the axis of a central pylon. The total deck width of the bridge is 15 metres.

The Anji khad Bridge has the support of 96 cables, with cable lengths ranging from 82 m to 295 m. The micropiles of 40-metre depth all around the circumference of the 20-metre hybrid well foundation were used in the main pylon construction.

The bridge shall carry a single railway line plus a 3.75 m-wide service road; there is a 1.5m wide footpath on each side of the deck with an overall width of 15 m.

The Anji Khad Bridge has been designed to handle heavy storms with strong winds. The design wind speed considered is 213 kmph.

Various unique techniques and equipment are being used, like DOKA Jump-Form Shuttering and Pump Concreting Systems, to increase efficiency, provide higher worker safety, and save construction time by about 30 percent.

A state-of-the-art tower crane (imported from Spain) of 40 T capacity with an extendable height of up to 205 metres is being used for enhancing construction activities at heights up to 193 m. The Anji Khad Bridge has an integrated monitoring system by means of numerous sensors installed at various locations on the bridge.

The work for Detailed Design and Construction Supervision (DDC) of this iconic bridge has been assigned to the Italian company ITALFERR (a company belonging to the Italian State Railways Group "Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane"), and proof checking was assigned to the company COWI, UK. The design has been based on Indy, started by Photo by Eurocodes, where necessary.

The design speed of the line is 100 km/h, a limit that does not pose problems for the train-structure interaction.

Site-specific earthquake parameter studies were carried out by the Department of Earthquake Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, to define the seismo-tectonic framework for the region.

Due to the importance of the bridge, a large number of sensors will be placed on it to monitor the structural health of the bridge during service.

(With inputs from ANI)