REASI: Rising high on the slopes of the rugged Himalayas, the newly completed bridge will soon help India regain control of disputed Kashmir and meet the rising strategic threat from China.
The Chenab Rail Bridge, the tallest of its kind in the world, was hailed as an engineering feat connecting the turbulent Kashmir valley to the vast Indian plains by rail.
But its completion has raised concerns among some in the province with a long history of opposition to Indian rule, which is already home to more than 500,000 troops.
India's military brass say the strategic benefits of the bridge to New Delhi cannot be underestimated.
“Trains to Kashmir will be important in peacetime and in times of war,” General Deependra Singh Hooda, the retired commander of India's northern army, told the AFP.
Muslim-majority Kashmir has been at the center of bitter rivalry between India and Pakistan, divided between them since independence from British rule in 1947, and has fought it's the nuclear armed neighbors.
Insurgent groups have also waged a 35-year-long insurgency demanding independence for the province or its integration with Pakistan.
The new bridge will “facilitate the movement of army personnel to and fro in greater numbers than before,” said Noor Ahmad Baba, professor of politics at the Central University of Kashmir.
But, as well as the military, the bridge will “facilitate the movement” of civilians and goods, he told AFP.
It has sparked unrest among some in Kashmir who believe that easier access will bring an influx of foreigners to buy land and settle.
Earlier strict rules on land ownership were lifted after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government revoked Kashmir's independence in 2019.
“If the intention is to target the Kashmiri consciousness of linguistic, cultural and intellectual identity, or to express muscular nationalism, the impact will be negative,” said Sidiq Wahid, a historian, by AFP.
India Railways calls the $24 million bridge “probably the biggest civil engineering challenge faced by a railway project in India in recent history”.
It is expected to promote economic development and trade, reduce the cost of goods.
But Hooda, a retired general, said the biggest result of the bridge would be the modernization of logistics in Ladakh, an icy region bordering China.
India and China, the world's two most populous countries, are fierce rivals competing for strategic influence across South Asia, and their shared 3,500-kilometer (2,200-mile) border is a source of perennial tension.
Their armies clashed in 2020, killing at least 20 Indians and four Chinese soldiers, and forces from both sides today face the disputed high borders.
“Everything from needles to the largest weapons… has to be sent by road and stored in Ladakh for six months of the year before the road is closed. the winter,” Hooda told AFP.
Now everything can be transported by train, easing what Indian military experts call “the world's largest military logistical exercise” — supplying Ladakh through the snow.
The project will support several other road tunnel projects that will connect Kashmir and Ladakh, not far from India's borders with China and Pakistan.
The 1,315-meter steel and concrete bridge connects two mountains with an arch 359 meters above the cold waters of the Chenab River.
The train is ready and waiting for the expected cord cutting from Modi.
The 272-kilometer railway starts in the garrison town of Udhampur, the headquarters of the northern army's command, and runs through the regional capital Srinagar.
It ends a kilometer higher in altitude in Baramulla, a gateway trading town near the Line of Control with Pakistan.
When the road is open, the distance is doubled and the drive takes a day.
The railroad cost about $3.9 billion and is a huge undertaking, and construction began nearly three decades ago.
Although several road and canal bridges are higher, Guinness World Records confirmed that Chenab beat the previous highest railway bridge, Najiehe Bridge in China.
Describing India's new bridge as “amazing”, its deputy chief designer, RR Mallick, said the experience of designing and building it had “become a holy book for our engineers”.
