The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has achieved a major milestone in the ongoing construction of a railway bridge at Noney in Manipur, by successfully erecting a 100-metre tall pier, NeNow has reported. This achievement was also lauded by Railway Minister Piyush Goyal.
As reported earlier, this bridge when complete would link Manipur’s capital Imphal with a broad gauge line connecting it to Jiribam and Tupul. This has been classified as a national project and passes through the steep rolling hills of the Patkai ranges. The pace of the construction intensified in the last three years.
What makes this project unique is the fact that one of the pillars would rise as high as 141 metres thereby giving it the distinction of world’s tallest girder rail bridge. Currently, Mala-Rijeka viaduct on Belgrade-Bar railway line in Europe is the tallest where the height of pillars is 139 meters.
As reported by Times of India, railway officials while calling it the “world’s tallest bridge” stated that this 100-metre pier is currently the tallest in the country. The total length of the bridge is pegged at 703 metres.
This 111 km railway line when complete would also boast of 45 tunnels one of which will be 10.28 km long - longest in the Northeast. The project is expected to be completed by 2022.