Horses and mules to the rescue: How Chenab Bridge was built in Kashmir
NEW DELHI: Long before towering cranes swung into action or steel arches touched the skies, it was the humble clip-clop of hooves that echoed through the Himalayas.
To bring the dream of connecting Kashmir to Kanyakumari alive, the team building the Chenab Bridge, now the world's highest railway bridge, first had to navigate a far less glamorous challenge: getting there.
In the early days, the steep, unforgiving terrain of the Himalayas offered no roads, no tracks—only winding, narrow paths. The solution? Horses and mules.
'Initially, mules and horses were used by the project team to reach the location,' said a spokesperson from Afcons Infrastructure Limited, the engineering firm that executed the mega project. 'Gradually, temporary access roads were built, finally leading to more permanent routes,' he told PTI.
It took grit and persistence to tame the landscape. On the north bank of the Chenab, an 11-km road was carved out; on the south, 12 km more followed - routes that would eventually bring in machinery, steel, and hope.
On Friday, as
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
walked across the bridge waving the tricolour, what unfolded was not just the inauguration of a piece of infrastructure, but the realisation of a nation's engineering audacity. Along with the Chenab Bridge, the PM also flagged off the Anji Rail Bridge, the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL), and Vande Bharat trains—bringing Kashmir a rail heartbeat closer to the rest of India.
Taming the Himalayas wasn't easy. Using the world's tallest crossbar cable cranes and heavy-duty machines, engineers performed consolidation grouting on ancient, brittle slopes, fortifying them to bear the massive arch foundations.
The real magic unfolded on April 5, 2021. As cantilevered arches extended from either bank of the Chenab, they met in mid-air like clasped hands—a moment of triumph after years of calculations, courage and concrete.
And the feats didn't stop there. For the first time in Indian Railways' history, incremental launching was executed on a transition curve and a longitudinal gradient at the same location,.
It wasn't just engineering excellence but also scientific precision that held the bridge together. A lab accredited by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) was set up on-site, another Indian Railways first, to ensure uncompromising quality at every stage.
Standing 359 metres above the Chenab River, 35 metres taller than Paris' Eiffel Tower, the bridge is now the world's tallest railway structure. A marvel in steel and spirit.
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