Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Chenab Bridge in Jammu and Kashmir, the world's highest railway arch bridge, last Friday. As the nation celebrated the feat, Professor G Madhavi Latha, a long-time contributor, credited thousands of "unsung heroes" and urged people not to make her "unnecessarily famous."
"I salute the millions of unsung heroes," said Dr Latha, who was a geotechnical consultant to Afcons, the engineering firm that constructed the bridge. "My role was to help in developing slope stabilisation schemes and design of foundations on slope," she added in a message on LinkedIn shared after the inauguration.
Dr Latha, who has been involved with the Chenab Bridge for 17 years, spoke about the headlines that described her as the "woman behind the mission" and one who performed "miracles to build the bridge". She called them "baseless."
"Please don't make me unnecessarily famous," she said. "I am one of the thousands who deserve appreciation for Chenab Bridge."
Currently attending a conference in Spain, the professor from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, thanked those who sent congratulatory messages. "Many fathers have written to me saying that they want their daughters to become like me. Many young kids have written to me that they now want to take up Civil Engineering as their career choice," she said.
"All glory belongs to Indian Railways," she said and appreciated the Indian Railways and Afcons for their execution of what many called an impossible task.
A leading geotechnical engineer, Dr G Madhavi Latha is a Higher Administrative Grade (HAG) professor at the IISc, Bengaluru.
Construction of the Chenab Bridge, part of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Railway Link (USBRL), faced significant challenges due to difficult terrain, seismic risks, and unpredictable geology. Dr Latha and her team helped the project navigate these complexities with a "design-as-you-go" approach.
This meant adapting to real-time findings like fractured rocks and hidden cavities, factors that earlier surveys had missed. Dr Latha provided guidance on rock anchor design and slope stability, elements crucial for a structure of this scale.
She also detailed her technical journey in a paper titled 'Design as You Go: The Case Study of Chenab Railway Bridge', published in the Indian Geotechnical Journal's special women's issue.
Standing 359 metres above the Chenab River, the bridge rises 35 metres taller than the Eiffel Tower. Indian Railways built it at a cost of Rs 1,486 crore, making it the tallest railway arch bridge in the world. The government calls it the biggest civil-engineering challenge Indian Railways has ever tackled. Engineers expect the bridge to significantly boost connectivity in the Kashmir Valley, calling it a once-in-a-lifetime project.
