Anji Khad Bridge

The Anji Khad bridge is a cable-stayed bridge connecting the Katra and Reasi sections of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla-Rail-Link (USBRL) in the Jammu Division of Jammu and Kashmir, India.

The bridge lies southeast of the Chenab Bridge, near Reasi, along which the alignment of the railway line crosses the deep gorge of the Anji Khad or chasm. An earlier arch bridge design proposal similar to that of the Chenab Bridge was rejected and a new cable-stayed design was approved. It is India's first cable-stayed railway bridge. It is built by Hindustan Construction Company, and is widely regarded as an engineering marvel of modern India.

Arch Bridge design proposal: rejected
The Anji Khad bridge was initially proposed to be an arch bridge. It was designed as a long steel arches span bridge. Its total length was to be 473 m, with a main arch span of 265 m, and a deck height of 189 m. Quality aspects, construction standards, indigenous materials, and the painting scheme were proposed to be similar to the Chenab Bridge. Later, a committee headed by a former railway board chairman recommended that the location was not suitable for an arch bridge. In particular, the unstable geology of the Himalayan mountains combined with the steepness of the sides of the gorge made an arch bridge impractical.

Cable-stayed bridge design proposal: accepted
In October 2016, Indian Railways decided to build a cable-stayed bridge at Anji Khad. The completed bridge will connect tunnels T2 and T3 on the Katra and Reasi sides respectively. It has a 290 meter main span at a height of 196 meters. The length of bridge’s main section is 473.25 meters out of a total length of over 1,300 meters, with a 120 meter long viaduct. The bridge is asymmetrical, supported by 96 cables anchored to a single pylon on the Reasi side. The initial cost of the project was set at ₹458 crore.



Design
The basic design proposed by a foreign firm is used. The head of the construction of Northern Railways has informed that the detailed design is being worked out.

Status updates

 * January 2017: HCC to construct cable-stayed Anji Khad Bridge. The work is planned to be completed in 36 months.


 * March 2021: Bridge design entails a single pylon, the construction of this pylon has been completed.


 * January 2022: It is now proposed that the bridge will be completed within a year, i.e. by December 2022.


 * April 2023: All 96 cables have been attached, and the bridge stands nearly completed with associated track laying and fine tuning work to be completed in the following few months to conclude the project.


 * August 2023: A trial run was reportedly successfully completed.