Chenab Bridge Project Engineer's New Post On "Unnecessary" Fame
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.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NDTV
31 minutes ago
- NDTV
JNU Students Union Vs Administration: PhD Entrance, UGC-NET Ban At Core
New Delhi: As the hunger strike by the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) enters its fourth day, the standoff between the union and the administration intensifies over the demand to reinstate the JNU Entrance Examination (JNUEE) for PhD admissions, as well as a rollback of the university's decision to bar June 2025 UGC-NET aspirants. The indefinite strike called by the union office-bearers continues even as Vice-Chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit has said that the university's deans are not in favor of conducting the in-house test. In an open letter dated June 26, JNUSU's President Nitish Kumar, Vice President Manisha, and General Secretary Munteha Fatima wrote to the Vice Chancellor of an assurance allegedly made during a 17-day hunger strike last August, to reinstate JNUEE for the 2025-26 academic session. They accused the administration of ignoring feedback from academic units and using excuses of "lack of funds" to stall the entrance test. The students argued this undermines equitable admissions and benefits ideological affiliates of the RSS and ABVP. They also expressed frustration at repeated refusals by the VC to meet them, charging that her insistence on having all four office bearers present was undemocratic. Responding on June 27, Vice Chancellor Pandit stated that she had asked all deans last year to take responsibility for conducting JNUEE, but none provided any written commitment. "Many deans opted for NET and CUET instead," she wrote, citing their wider reach and improved participation of reserved categories. She noted, as a democratic head of the institution she had to respect their decision. Denying the charge of apathy, the Vice Chancellor said she had met all four union members earlier, adding that for future discussions all four members of JNUSU should be present (referring to ABVP-affiliated JNUSU member). "JNUSU is a panel of four members, and anyone left out makes it undemocratic," she said. In their response, the three protesting Left-affiliated JNUSU office-bearers questioned the VC's claim, arguing that several deans and chairpersons had in fact expressed support for JNUEE. The union maintains that the administration is unfairly shifting the responsibility for organising the exam onto the deans. They also demanded clarity on the Rs 5,000 per-student cost estimate for conducting JNUEE. The union has written seeking a comprehensive meeting with university authorities, including representatives of the JNU Teachers' Association to address what they call a "fragmented" and "exclusionary" admission process. While also rejecting the VC's insistence on the presence of the fourth union member-Joint Secretary Vaibhav Meena, who supports CUET/NET, and has not been part of their campaign. Meanwhile, JNU has already opened its online PhD applications for the current academic year, with the submission window running from June 26 to July 7. Viva-voce rounds are scheduled for the end of July, and the first merit list is expected on August 11. As the hunger strike at Sabarmati T-point continues, JNUSU president Nitish Kumar, Vice President Manisha, and General Secretary Munteha Fatima maintain that their protest would go on until the administration agrees to reinstate the JNUEE and engage in a wider, transparent dialogue on admissions policy.
Economic Times
an hour ago
- Economic Times
Women face higher risk of cognitive decline from polluting cooking fuels: IISc brain scan study
Representative image Women exposed to household air pollution from cooking fuels may be at a higher risk of cognitive impairment than men, a study by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru has found. The study, published in The Lancet Regional Health Southeast Asia journal, analysed MRI brain scans of ageing adults in the rural town of Srinivaspura in Karnataka, revealing that women might be at a higher risk of experiencing adverse effects in the brain. A team, which also included researchers from the University of Chicago, US, explained that burning solid fuels for cooking, especially in poorly ventilated spaces, can release air pollutants, such as oxides of carbon, nitrogen, sulphur and heavy metals, along with suspended particulate pollutants have been shown to affect the brain through varied mechanisms, primary ones being inflammation and oxidative stress, they researchers analysed more than 4,100 adults aged 45 and above, who are participants of the ongoing Centre for Brain Research-Srinivaspura Aging, Neuro Senescence, and COGnition (CBR-SANSCOG) study at IISc. MRI brain scans were taken for around a thousand of these participants. Cognitive impairment, they explained, affects memory, reasoning, and speech. It may precede conditions like dementia and Alzheimer's disease -- in which the affected person faces trouble performing daily routine study's authors wrote, "Polluting cooking technology users may be at a higher risk for cognitive impairment. Rural females, who tend to be more exposed than males, could have greater vulnerability to (household air pollution's) adverse effects on the brain." Given the increasing burden of dementia -- an ageing-related disorder -- in India, the findings have significant implications for public health, providing insights on how household air pollution can influence dementia risk, the team said."Policies promoting clean cooking fuel (or) technology adoption are imperative," they added that the findings support those from previous studies which showed a lowered cognition and ability to process visual information in space among people using polluting cooking upon analysing the MRI brain scans of women, the team found lower volumes of hippocampus -- a brain region critical for memory and known to be significantly impacted in Alzheimer's the study broadens the understanding of how pollution-causing cooking fuel is related with poor cognition, the authors said."Community-centred interventions to improve health literacy and clean cooking fuel adoption among rural Indians, could help reduce the substantial morbidities associated with polluting cooking fuel use, and reduce dementia risk," they said. The study is the only one to employ brain scanning techniques in a rural population to examine how household air pollution can adversely impact the brain structurally, the authors said.
Economic Times
an hour ago
- Economic Times
India's April-May fiscal deficit at Rs 13,163 crore, narrows on-year to 0.8% of FY26 aim
India's fiscal deficit for April to May, or the first two months of this fiscal year, was at 13,163 crore rupees, equivalent to 0.8% of annual estimates, narrowing from the previous year's 3.1% budget gap. The government aims to narrow the fiscal gap to 4.4% of GDP in this financial year from 4.8% a year earlier. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads India's fiscal deficit for the first two months of this fiscal year through May stood at 13,163 crore rupees, or 0.8% of annual estimates, government data showed fiscal deficit narrowed from 3.1% reported in the comparable year-earlier receipts stood at 7.33 lakh crore rupees, while overall expenditure in April to May was at 7.46 lakh crore rupees. They were 21% and 14.7% of this fiscal year's budget receipts in the year-earlier period was at 17.9% of estimate, while expenditure widened from 12.9% a year receipts stood at 7.08 lakh crore rupees, of which tax revenue was 3.51 lakh crore rupees and non-tax revenue was 3.57 lakh crore and non-tax revenues were 12.4% and 61.2% of the budgeted estimate. While tax revenue was tad wider than 12.3% of budget estimate in the last fiscal year, non-tax revenue swelled from 46.1% of budget forecast in the same period last revenue jumped as the Reserve Bank of India approved a dividend of Rs 2.69 lakh crore to the central government, up from Rs 2.11 lakh crore transferred last year. This will help the central government reduce its fiscal expenditure stood at 5.25 lakh crore rupees in April to Delhi saw a revenue surplus of 1.83 lakh crore rupees or 34.9% of the fiscal year's budget target, data expenditure, or spending on building physical infrastructure, was 2.21 lakh crore rupees, up from 1.4 lakh crore rupees in year-eariler announcing the federal budget for this fiscal year that started April 1, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman set the fiscal deficit target for 2025-26 at 4.4%, in line with the Indian government's commitment to narrow the budget gap to below 4.5% by fiscal 2026. India's fiscal deficit for FY25 stood at 4.8% of GDP, meeting the revised lower fiscal deficit target for 2025-26 was expected on hopes of strong tax collections, despite the government's continued capex push that is crucial to shore up consumption and create jobs and help India achieve its aim to be world's third largest economy by the expenditure side, New Delhi spent 51,252 crore rupees on major subsidies such as food, fertilisers and petroleum. This was 13% of the revised annual aim, marginally narrower than 14% of budgeted expenditure in the comparable period last year.
