The Railways on Thursday successfully conducted the trial run on the world’s highest rail bridge on the river Chenab in the Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir.

The bridge is built between Sangaldan in Ramban district and Reasi while the rail services on the line will begin soon, said an official.

“Successful trial run of MEMU train between Sangaldan-Reasi section of USBRL project,” Minister for Railways, Ashwini Vaishnaw posted on X (formerly Twitter).

A railway official said after an extensive inspection of the newly constructed Chenab Bridge by the senior officers from Railway Board, Northern Railway and Konkan Railway, today Indian Railway successfully conducted a trial run of a MEMU train (8 coaches) on newly constructed electrified line section (route length 46 kms) between Sangaldan in Ramban district and Reasi at an speed of 40 kmph.

“It was successfully carried out starting at 12:35 hours from Sangaldan and reaching Reasi at 14:05 hours. On the way it passed through 9 numbers of tunnels with a combined length of 40.787 Km and longest tunnel T-44 of 11.13 Km. The first ever full train crossed over the iconic bridge between Dugga and Bakkal stations across the Chenab River, which is the world’s highest arch railway bridge. The stations Reasi, Bakkal, Dugga and Sawlakoteare situated in Reasi District of J&K. The Railway Electrification work on this section has been executed with state-of-the-art technology, ROCS (Rigid Overhead Conductor System) at 25 kV, for the first time on Indian Railways,” he said.

The Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) project will be completed by year-end, said an official.

The 48-km long Banihal-Sangaldan section was inaugurated by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 20.

The 359-metre high Chenab Rail Bridge is some 35 metres taller than the Eiffel Tower.