The world’s highest single-arch rail bridge is set to connect the valley region in Indian-administered Kashmir with the rest of the country by train for the first time.
It took more than 20 years for the Indian railways to finish the bridge over the River Chenab in the Reasi district of Jammu.
The showpiece infrastructure project is 35m taller than the Eiffel Tower and the first train on the bridge is set to run soon between Bakkal and
Kauri areas.
The bridge is part of a 272km (169 miles) all-weather railway line that will pass through Jammu, ultimately going all the way to the Kashmir valley (there is no definite timeline yet for the completion). Currently, the road link to Kashmir valley is often cut off during winter months when heavy snowfall leads to blockages on the highway from Jammu.
Experts say the new railway line will give India a strategic advantage along the troubled border region.
The Himalayan region of Kashmir has been a flashpoint between India and Pakistan for decades. The nuclear-armed neighbours have fought two wars over it since independence in 1947. Both claim Kashmir in full but control only parts of it.
An armed insurgency against Delhi’s rule in the Indian-administered region since 1989 has claimed thousands of lives and there is heavy military presence in the area.
“The rail bridge will permit the transport of military personnel and equipment around the year to the border areas,” said Giridhar Rajagopalan, deputy managing director of Afcons Infrastructure, the contractor for the Indian railways that constructed the bridge.
This will help India exploit a “strategic goal of managing any adventurism by Pakistan and China [with whom it shares tense relations] on the western and northern borders”, said Shruti Pandalai, a strategic affairs expert.
On the ground, sentiment about the project is more nuanced. Some locals, who did not want to be named, said the move would definitely help improve transport links, which would benefit them. But they also worry it would be a way for the Indian government to exert more control over the valley.
The railway line is part of a larger infrastructural expansion – along with more than 50 other highway, railway and power projects – by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, which stripped Jammu and Kashmir of its special status and divided the state into two federally administered territories in 2019.
Source: BBC
