World’s highest railway bridge opens in conflict-hit Kashmir

Modi’s visit to India-administered Kashmir was his first since a brief but deadly conflict between India and Pakistan in April. The nuclear-armed neighbors traded missiles, drones, and artillery shelling for four days after New Delhi blamed the massacre on its neighbor, which Pakistan denies.CNN reported.

Decades in the making, the arched Chenab Bridge sits 359 meters (about 1,180 feet) above the river of the same name – that’s 29 meters (over 95 feet) higher than the top of the Eiffel Tower.

Costing more than $160 million with a length of 1,315 meters (4,314 feet), the bridge is part of the first railway link between Kashmir and the rest of India.

Modi’s Hindu-nationalist government has moved to integrate the Muslim-majority region with the rest of the country, including revoking a constitutional provision that allowed it to set its own laws in 2019.

The Himalayan region of Kashmir is claimed by India, Pakistan and China. All three administer a part of the region, one of the most militarized zones in the world.