Anji Bridge: First cable-stayed railway bridge connecting Katra and Reasi in J-K is close to completion

Srinagar : The Anji bridge is being constructed in the Reasi district of the Indian administered Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir under the most challenging Udampur-Srinagar-Baramulla-Rail Link (USBRL) Project of Indian Railways.

The bridge is about 80 km by road from Jammu.

Anji Khad Bridge is the country's "first cable-stayed bridge" of Indian Railways connecting Katra and Reasi in Jammu and Kashmir. The bridge is a part of the national project of the Udhampur-Srinagar- Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) Project.

The bridge is located in the young fold mountains of the Himalayas having extremely complex, fragile and daunting geological features in the form of faults, folds and thrusts and besides seismic proneness of the region. Detailed site-specific investigations were carried out by IIT, Roorkee and IIT, Delhi.

Slopes of the mountain supporting one foundation of the main span have been stabilised by a special hybrid foundation on the Katra end due to space constraints.

The major portion of the bridge works including the main pylon with a 40 m deep Hybrid foundation, Central Embankment and Ancillary Viaduct was carried out on the Srinagar end.

The total length of the bridge is 725.5 m. Considering the ease of construction and typical site conditions, the bridge has been divided into 4 parts-120 m long approach viaduct (called "ancillary viaduct") on the Reasi side, a 38 m long approach bridge on the Katra end (CA2), the main bridge, crossing the deep valley (473.25 m cable-stayed portion) and the Central embankment (94.25 m), located between the main bridge and an approach (ancillary) viaduct.

The main bridge over Anji is a cable-stayed bridge with a total length of 473.25 m consisting of a main span of 290 m. Anji Khad Bridge connects tunnels T2 and T3 on the Katra-Banihal Section of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link project.

This bridge has a single main pylon of height 193 m from the top of the foundation, standing at a height of 331 metres above the river bed.

The total length of the bridge is 725 m consisting of the main bridge with a length of 473.25 metres, an ancillary viaduct of 120 metres in length, an approach bridge of 38 meters on Katra end and the central embankment of 94.25 metres in length.

It is an asymmetrical cable-stayed bridge balanced on the axis of a central pylon. The total Deck width of the bridge is 15 m.

The Anji Khad Bridge has the support of 96 cables having cable lengths varying from 82 m to 295 m. The micro piles of 40-metre depth all around the circumference of the 20-metre hybrid well foundation were used in the main pylon construction.

The bridge shall carry a single railway line plus a 3.75 m wide service road, there is a 1.5m wide footpath on each side of the deck with an overall width of 15 m.

The Anji Khad Bridge has been designed to handle heavy storms of strong winds. The design wind speed considered is 213 Kmph.

Various unique techniques and equipment are being used like DOKA Jump form Shuttering and Pump Concreting System to increase efficiency, providing higher safety for workers and for saving construction time by about 30 per cent.

State-of-the-art tower crane (imported from Spain) of 40 T capacity with an extendable height of up to 205 meters is being used for enhancing construction activities at heights up to 193 m. The Anji Khad Bridge will have an integrated monitoring system by means of numerous sensors installed at various locations on the bridge.

The work for Detailed Design and Construction Supervision (DDC) of this iconic bridge has been assigned to the Italian Company ITALFERR (A Company belonging to the Italian State Railways Group "Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane") and Proof Checking was assigned to the Company COWI, UK. The design has been based on Indy started by Photo by Eurocodes, where necessary.

The design speed of the line is 100 km/h, a limit that does not pose problems for the train-structure interaction.

Site-specific Earthquake parameters studies were carried out by the Department of Earthquake Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee to define the seismo-tectonic framework for the region.

Due to the importance of the bridge, a large number of sensors shall be placed on it to monitor the structural health of the bridge during service.