Kashmir Is Linked to India’s Railways by the World’s Highest Rail Bridge
The Chenab Bridge, 359 metres above its river, opened on 6 June 2025 and completed a 272-kilometre line through the Himalayan foothills. Srinagar is now three hours by train from Katra.
The railway to the Kashmir Valley was completed on 6 June 2025, when the Chenab Bridge was inaugurated and the first Vande Bharat express trains ran between Katra and Srinagar. The valley, one of the most celebrated landscapes in India, had never before been connected by rail to the rest of the country.
The bridge
The Chenab Bridge is a steel arch 1,315 metres long. Its deck is 359 metres above the bed of the Chenab River, which makes it the highest railway bridge in the world, some 35 metres higher than the top of the Eiffel Tower. It was built to withstand strong earthquakes and winds of up to 266 kilometres an hour. The structure was finished in 2022 and trial runs began in 2024. A second large bridge on the same section, at Anji Khad, is the first cable-stayed railway bridge in India.
The line
Both bridges belong to the Udhampur–Srinagar–Baramulla rail link, a line of 272 kilometres through the outer ranges of the Himalaya. Much of it runs in tunnel. Indian Railways has described it as one of the most difficult railway projects it has undertaken, and it was built in stages over more than two decades. The final section, between Katra and the valley, was the hardest and the last to open.
The semi-high-speed Vande Bharat trains cover the distance from Katra to Srinagar in about three hours, two to three hours less than the road. The road over the mountains is often closed by snow and landslides in winter. The railway is meant to run all year.
For travellers
Srinagar is known for the houseboats and gardens of Dal Lake, and is the base for the meadows of Gulmarg and Pahalgam. Most visitors have arrived by air. The train offers another way in, and the crossing of the gorge is an attraction in itself. Katra, where the service begins, is the station for the pilgrimage to the Vaishno Devi shrine and is connected to Delhi by overnight and day trains. At the time of opening, passengers from Delhi had to change at Katra.
The line is one of several pieces of infrastructure that have recently changed how travellers move across Asia. Another is the railway between Laos and China, which brought Luang Prabang within a few hours of Kunming.