Indian Railways Building World’s Tallest Bridge Pier In This State: It Will Beat Europe’s 139 Meter Bridge

Indian Railways which is one of the largest employers in the world, hold many other records in its name. Once again, it is about to make a new record. The Indian Railways now is constructing the world’s tallest bridge pier in Manipur This bridge will be a part of the 111 km long Jiribam-Imphal railway project.

The Indian Railways is building pier bridges in the world

The bridge is being built at a pier height of 141 meters. After its construction is completed it will surpass the existing record of 139 meters of Mala – Rijeka viaduct, Montenegro in Europe.

Sandeep Sharma, Chief Engineer of the project said, “With the completion of the project, the 111 km of distance will be covered in 2-2.5 hours. Presently, the distance between Jiribam-Imphal (NH-37) is 220 km, which took about 10-12 hours of traveling. After the construction, the bridge crossing Noney valley will become the world’s highest pier bridge.”

The ambitious project in Manipur is part of the 111 km long Jiribam-Imphal railway line. This line will connect the capital of Manipur with the broad gauge network of the country.

According to Sandeep Sharma, the construction of the bridge will cost ?374 crores.

The project will be completed by December 2023

Chief Engineer of the project, Sandeep Sharma, further said that the work on the bridge will be completed by December 2023.

“The first phase which extends for 12 km has already been commissioned. nearly 98 percent of the work is complete on the second phase and by February 2022, it will be ready. The third phase from Khongsang to Tupul will be completed by November 2022. The fourth and the last phase of the bridge which extends from Tupul to Imphal valley will be completed by December 2023,” he said. What may come as one interesting feature of this project is the 111 km project consists of 61 percent of tunnels

Construction of this project will be easier said than done. Talking about hurdles in the way Sharma said, “Landslides often occur on NH-37 during monsoon, which is the only route to this place. From April to October, there is immense rainfall here. During that time, it is difficult to work here. There are also some problems related to insurgency, which creates a problem sometimes.” 

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