Italferr: Anji Khad railway bridge opens in India

Rome, 9 June 2025

The first railway cable-stayed bridge - designed and supervised by Italferr, an engineering company part of FS Group - was inaugurated in India. The Anji Khad Bridge is a unique, iconic and strategic infrastructure that will significantly contribute to raising the standards of reliability and improving territorial and international connections.

The bridge represents an unprecedented project in the country. This was a never-seen-before engineering challenge, given the morphology of the terrain and the extremely demanding conditions brought on by the Anji River, which flows through a deep gorge with sub-vertical walls, in an area characterised by very strong winds.

The inauguration was attended by the Indian authorities, and representatives of railway operator Indian Railway and Italferr.

With a length of 725 metres and a height of 196 metres, the bridge has a 473-meter long cable-stayed section, with a central span of 290 and an asymmetrical retaining tower. This unique design makes it the first railroad cable-stayed bridge in India, and one of the most ambitious and challenging projects of the entire Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla railway line, designed to connect Kashmir with India's north-western borders.

The asymmetrical design of the cable-stayed bridge was strategically chosen to facilitate most of the construction on one end and thus enable it to be built.  This approach was based on the assessment of available space and slope stability. The innovative mode of action ensured structural integrity and simplified construction processes, demonstrating a deep understanding of the project's functional requirements and local conditions.

The investment value of the works amounts to USD 70 million.The Anji Khad Bridge project received the Award of Merit in the Bridge/Tunnel category of the ENR Global Best Projects 2024. This prestigious award, assigned by an international jury, which examined more than 120 applications, testifies to the innovation and engineering quality of Italferr's project, and positions it among the best infrastructures at a global level. The ENR Global Best Projects Awards, presented annually by the Engineering News-Record (ENR) magazine, honour the world's most outstanding infrastructure projects, by judging entries according to safety, innovation and sustainability criteria.

Italferr has been present in India since 2014, and continues to be involved in several strategic projects. In addition to the Anji Khad bridge, Italferr is also part of a joint venture with Ayesa on the 'Engagement of General Consultant for Delhi- Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS Corridor' project, a EUR 15 million project started in 2019, which concerns the construction of an 82 km railway corridor that will be India's first regional rapid transport system and, with a maximum speed of 160 km/h, will connect the capital Delhi with the cities of Meerut and Ghaziabad.

Ongoing activities include the provision of design services for the new Rishikesh-Karanprayang railway line, the Himalayan Tunnel in Uttarakhand in the north of the country, and Project Management Consultancy services for the Kanpur and Agra metro lines - two of the largest industrial cities in northern India. Italferr also affirmed its leadership in Mass Transit, by being awarded the contracts for the construction of two metro lines in Mumbai, Line 2 and Line 7, which opened in January 2023.

Know-how and the use of advanced digitisation methods have enabled Italferr - Italy's leading engineering company - to become one of the major international players in the railway, conventional and high-speed engineering sector, in metro and road transport.