Andhra’s Pride Madhavi Latha Behind World’s Highest Bridge

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Chenab Railway Bridge touted the world’s highest railway arch bridge, a couple of days ago. The inauguration underscores a landmark moment in India’s infrastructure journey.

The bridge towering 359 mts tall above the Chenab river, exceeds the height of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. It connects the Kashmir valley with the rest of the country. The world’s highest railway arch bridge is 1,315 mts long. It consists of a 530-mt long approach bridge, 785-mt deck arch bridge.

It would be surprising to know that this iconic bridge built in the northern part of India has a south connection, and with Andhra Pradesh in particular. Fiftyfour-year-old Prof. Madhavi Latha, of the Indian Institute of Science, worked on the project for 17 long years. From 2005, when she joined the IISc to 2022, when she took her family to the place where the bridge was being built, she was completely involved in its construction and other aspects.

She said: “Working on this project has been experience of a lifetime.” After pursuing civil engineering from JNTU-Kakinada, Latha moved on NIT-Warangal to do her post graduation and a Ph.D from IIT-Madras. For one year, she worked as an assistant professor at IIT-Guwahati and then secured a position in the IISc-Bengaluru.

The steel structure can endure extremes of weather conditions like temperatures as low as -20 degree Celsius and wind speeds of 220 km/hr, which is equal to the gusty winds during cyclones. In addition, as the area falls in the Seismic zone-4, the structure was built to withstand earthquakes of magnitude 8 on the Richter Scale.

She said that as the structure was built in mountainous terrain, it had the threats of slopes. At one point, she had to invest her time and energy 24×7, sacrificing her rest and sleep. Knowing that Latha, a woman hailing from Andhra Pradesh helmed the huge project, would make every citizen in the state proud.