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(CNN) India is now residence to the world’s tallest railway bridge. Some 35 meters (over 10 ft) taller than the Eiffel Tower, the Chenab Bridge sits 359 meters (round 109 ft) above the Chenab River in India’s contentious Jammu and Kashmir area.

After a long time of development, the bridge in northern India will probably be open to guests by the tip of December 2023 or January 2024, the Ministry of Railways said in a March press release.

The 1,315 meter-long (4,314 ft) bridge is a part of a broader mission to make the Kashmir Valley accessible by the Indian Railway community. In addition to the Chenab Bridge, the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) mission entails what’s going to turn out to be the nation’s longest transportation tunnel and Indian Railways’ first cable bridge.

For India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who swept to energy in 2014 on a ticket of nationalism and a promise of future greatness, investments in infrastructure just like the Chenab Bridge and the broader rail hyperlink mission could be seen as a robust device for social integration and political affect, connecting disparate areas with key cities.

“The bridge and the greater connectivity it’s meant to create will be projected by New Delhi as another big victory for the region’s development,” stated Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute on the Wilson Center.

Another hyperlink within the chain

Linking Kashmir with the remainder of India by practice will particularly enhance the area’s industrial and agricultural sectors by permitting all-weather rail connectivity between the valley and the remainder of India, consultants say.

Previously, the one land route connecting the Indian-controlled elements of Kashmir with the remainder of the nation was the winding 300-kilometer (185-mile) Srinagar-Jammu nationwide freeway, which closes throughout a part of the winter and can be steadily the location of car accidents.

“We are getting lot of problems going across the road,” Anil Kumar Mehendru, vp of the New Kashmir Fruit Association, informed CNN. “Once we will be connected by train with the rest of India, it will be a big boost to this industry, agriculture as well as fruit.”

Sushant Singh, a senior fellow on the Centre for Policy Research in India, stated the bridge additionally has political implications, because it’s seen as “a means of integrating Kashmir into India.”

According to Singh, “the hope historically” was that the railway hyperlink, together with the Chenab Bridge, would make Kashmir “feel more as a part of India.”

But Singh informed CNN it “remains to be seen” whether or not the expanded connectivity from the bridge and rail hyperlink is seen as a constructive by Kashmiris, on condition that “in recent years, Kashmir has been undermined by policies taken by Prime Minister Modi and his government which have really alienated the Kashmiris.”

In 2019, India revoked a constitutional provision giving the Indian-controlled a part of Kashmir the autonomy to set its personal legal guidelines. The southern and jap parts of the area recognized beforehand because the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir grew to become two separate union territories, a transfer Modi claimed would promote stability, scale back corruption and enhance the financial system.

“New Delhi’s message, following that move, was that it would leverage its greater degree of control over Jammu and Kashmir to bring it greater development benefits,” Kugelman stated. “It will use the bridge as a high-visibility, eye-catching data point to argue its strategy is working.”

Although the general USBRL mission was established in 2002 earlier than Modi grew to become prime minister, the Chenab Bridge is already being touted as a primary instance of his efforts to develop growth within the nation.

India’s Minister for Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw said in the press release that “The iconic Chenab Bridge is example of such new chapters and dimensions of development materialized by the inspiring leadership of the Honorable Prime Minister.”

Since coming to energy, Modi elevated the funds of lower than $100 million for the USBRL mission by an element of six to speed up the bridge’s completion after years of delays, Vaishnaw informed a March press conference, in line with CNN affiliate News18.

India has invested hundreds of thousands into modernizing its infrastructure. In February, Modi inaugurated the first section of a 1,386-kilometer (861-mile) expressway linking the capital New Delhi to the monetary hub of Mumbai. The 246-kilometer part (153-mile) of the expressway alone value $1.4 billion, the federal government stated in a press launch.

Construction can be underway for the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor, which goals to decongest India’s railway community.

Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar, CNN’s Rhea Mogul and Sania Farooqui contributed reporting.