| Bridge Name: | Anji Khad Bridge |
| Location: | India |
| Carries: | Indian Railways |
| Crosses: | Anji River, tributary of Chenab River between Katra and Reasi |
| Designer: | Hindustan Construction Company |
| Design: | Cable-stayed |
| Material: | Steel |
| Length: | 473.25m (1,552.66feet)[1] |
| Height: | (river bed to formation) 196m (643feet) |
| Mainspan: | 290m (950feet) |
| Spans: | 3 |
| Coordinates: | 33.0811°N 74.9128°W |
The Anji Khad bridge is a cable-stayed bridge connecting the Katra and Reasi sections of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla-Rail-Link (USBRL) in the Jammu Division of Jammu and Kashmir, India.
The bridge lies southeast of the Chenab Bridge, near Reasi, along which the alignment of the railway line crosses the deep gorge of the Anji Khad or chasm. An earlier arch bridge design proposal similar to that of the Chenab Bridge was rejected and a new cable-stayed design was approved. It is India's first cable-stayed railway bridge. It is built by Hindustan Construction Company, and is widely regarded as an engineering marvel of modern India.
The Anji Khad bridge was initially proposed to be an arch bridge. It was designed as a long steel arches span bridge. Its total length was to be, with a main arch span of, and a deck height of . Quality aspects, construction standards, indigenous materials, and the painting scheme were proposed to be similar to the Chenab Bridge. Later, a committee headed by a former railway board chairman recommended that the location was not suitable for an arch bridge. In particular, the unstable geology of the Himalayan mountains combined with the steepness of the sides of the gorge made an arch bridge impractical.[2]
In October 2016, Indian Railways decided to build a cable-stayed bridge atAnji Khad.[3] The completed bridge will connect tunnels T2 and T3 on the Katra and Reasi sides respectively. It has a 290 meter main span at a height of 196 meters.[4] The length of bridge’s main section is 473.25 meters out of a total length of over 1,300 meters, with a 120 meter long viaduct. The bridge is asymmetrical, supported by 96 cables anchored to a single pylon on the Reasi side.[5] The initial cost of the project was set at ₹458 crore.
The basic design proposed by a foreign firm is used. The head of the construction of Northern Railways has informed that the detailed design is being worked out.