India constructs world’s highest railway bridge in Kashmir

India is now home to the world’s tallest railway bridge. Some 35 meters (over 10 feet) taller than the Eiffel Tower, the Chenab Bridge sits 359 meters (around 109 feet) above the Chenab River in India’s contentious Jammu and Kashmir region, reports CNN.

After decades of construction, the bridge in northern India will be open to visitors by the end of December 2023 or January 2024, the Ministry of Railways said in a March press release.

The 1,315 meter-long (4,314 feet) bridge is part of a broader project to make the Kashmir Valley accessible by the Indian Railway network. In addition to the Chenab Bridge, the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) project involves what will become the country’s longest transportation tunnel and Indian Railways’ first cable bridge.

For India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who swept to power in 2014 on a ticket of nationalism and a promise of future greatness, investments in infrastructure like the Chenab Bridge and the broader rail link project can be seen as a powerful tool for social integration and political influence, connecting disparate regions with key cities.

“The bridge and the greater connectivity it’s meant to create will be projected by New Delhi as another big victory for the region’s development,” said Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center.

Linking Kashmir with the rest of India by train will specifically boost the region’s industrial and agricultural sectors by allowing all-weather rail connectivity between the valley and the rest of India, experts say.

Previously, the only land route connecting the Indian-controlled parts of Kashmir with the rest of the country was the winding 300-kilometer (185-mile) Srinagar-Jammu national highway, which closes during part of the winter and is also frequently the site of vehicle accidents.

“We are getting lot of problems going across the road,” Anil Kumar Mehendru, vice president of the New Kashmir Fruit Association, told CNN. “Once we will be connected by train with the rest of India, it will be a big boost to this industry, agriculture as well as fruit.”

Sushant Singh, a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research in India, said the bridge also has political implications, as it’s seen as “a means of integrating Kashmir into India.”

According to Singh, “the hope historically” was that the railway link, including the Chenab Bridge, would make Kashmir “feel more as a part of India.”

But Singh told CNN it “remains to be seen” whether the expanded connectivity from the bridge and rail link is seen as a positive by Kashmiris, given that “in recent years, Kashmir has been undermined by policies taken by Prime Minister Modi and his government which have really alienated the Kashmiris.”