Indian Railways Jiribam-Tupul-Imphal line project in North-East to have world’s tallest pier bridge; details

World’s tallest pier bridge is coming up in North East! The Northeast Frontier Railway Construction Organisation is constructing the tallest pier bridge in the world, near Noney in the North-Eastern state of Manipur. According to details shared by the Northeast Frontier Railway zone, the bridge is a part of Indian Railways’ Jiribam-Tupul-Imphal new broad gauge rail line project. The rail line is 111 kilometres long. Due to its importance as a National Project, the project picked up momentum in the last four years.The rail line project involves construction of a total 45 tunnels. Tunnel Number 12 with a length of 10.280 kilometres, will be the longest tunnel in the Northeast, the Northeast Frontier Railway zone stated.

The tallest pier bridge is being developed across the valley of river Ijai near Noney with a pier height of 141 metres. Once developed, the bridge will surpass the existing record of Mala – Rijeka viaduct, Montenegro in Europe, which is of 139 metres. According to Northeast Frontier Railways, the length of the bridge will be 703 metres in total. The bridge’s piers are constructed using hydraulic augers.

To ensure efficient and continual construction, the tall piers needed specially designed “slip-form technique”, NFR stated. At each pier, “self-erecting” electric lifts cater to speedy and safe conveyance of workers as well as materials to the top. The NFR added, the steel girders are pre-fabricated in a workshop. Then, they are transported in segments and are erected at the site by Cantilever launching scheme.

Meanwhile, Piyush Goyal-led Indian Railways is all set to link all North-Eastern states with the rail network. Earlier, it was planned by the Modi government to provide Indian Railways connectivity to all North-Eastern states by 2020, except Sikkim. Considering this, all North-Eastern states except Sikkim, have been brought into the country’s rail map. However, with the sanction of new railway line work from Sivok in West Bengal up to Rangpo, Indian Railways is now all set to provide connectivity to the state of Sikkim as well, by December 2022.