For the first time in the history of the Indian Railways, the Chenab bridge in Jammu & Kashmir is the single largest value bridge work ever awarded by the railways to any company. The bridge, worth Rs 512.74 crore, is being constructed by Afcons Infrastructure Ltd. This lump-sum turnkey project is a part of J&K rail connectivity programme being implemented by the Northern Zone of the Indian Railways for which the Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd is the principal contractor. Afcons is in the JV with Ultra Construction and Engineering Ltd of South Korea as construction associate and VSK India Pvt. Ltd as design associate.
The job-site is located in the Katra Laole section of Jammu-Udhampur-Baramullah Rail Link project which is of prime national importance in view of the role that it would play in integrating socio-economic life in the Kashmir Valley with the national mainstream. The bridge will put the valley on the rail-map of India and provide multimodal transportation facilities to the people of the region.
This upcoming lifeline for the strife-torn state is due to be fully operational by mid-2007, and therefore Afcons will have to leave no stone unturned to build this bridge within the stipulated timeframe of 30 months. Constructing this state-of-the-art bridge is a techno-logistical challenge, with very demanding benchmarks of schedule-compliance, technical excellence and logistical management. Afcons would use all its organisational strength of doing fast-track and composite bridge works under aggressive time-limit to meet the deadline.
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Salient Features |
Total length: 1,315 m
Main arch span: 480 m
Approach # 1 (concrete piers): 650 m
Approach # 2 (steel piers): 185 m
Deck width: 13.5 m |
