Viksit Bharat: 10 years of infrastructure development​​

NEW INDIA: India's modern infrastructure represents a significant leap forward in terms of scale, technology, and sustainability, reflecting the country's rapid economic growth and urbanization. This infrastructure spans various domains, including transportation, energy, urban development, and digital connectivity. India had witnessed the development of world's highest railway bridge and also had constructed the longest highway tunnel.Here’s an overview of some key aspects of modern infrastructure in India:
Bhakra Nangal Dam
At the time of Independence, close to 80% of Punjab’s cultivable, canal-irrigated land went to Pakistan. So, in 1948, the construction of the Bhakra-Nangal project took off. When it was completed in 1963, Jawaharlal Nehru described it as the “new temple of resurgent India”. There are two dams on the Satluj river. One at Bhakra village in Himachal Pradesh’s Bilaspur district. And the other, about 13 km downstream, at Nangal in Punjab. The reservoir of these dams is the Gobind Sagar, which helped to irrigate an arid Punjab and took care of the peculiar problem created by Partition. And don’t forget: the dam also helps generate 1,325 MW electricity.

Indira Gandhi Canal
It took almost five decades to complete but bringing water to the desert isn’t an easy job. Work on the Rajasthan Canal, renamed Indira Gandhi Canal in Nov 1984 following the assassination of the former PM, began in 1958, and now runs over 650km, bringing in a dash of green to the Thar desert. It now irrigates over 16 lakh acres in Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer and Barmer districts. The canal, which begins at the confluence of Satluj and Beas in Punjab, and ends in Jaisalmer, has pushed wheat, cotton and mustard production in the desert.
Kolkata/Delhi Metro
The plan was drawn way back in 1920. But the foundation stone for the Kolkata (then Calcutta) Metro was laid only in 1972 and operations began in 1984. It became India’s first rapid transit system and a blueprint for Metros in other Indian cities. In March this year, it hit yet another milestone – when a train whizzed along a short span of 520m for just 45 seconds under the Hooghly river, a portion of the stretch between Howrah and Mahakaran stations, it became the country's first underwater train.
The Metro track that opened in Delhi in 2002 was called the Red Line. It, however, turned out to be the first ‘green step’ for the country’s capital that had begun choking when a growth spurt in the 1990s led to an increase in private vehicles. The Delhi Metro now has 10 colour-coded lines that stretch over 350km with 256 stations. It has a daily ridership of 46 lakh, making it India’s largest and busiest Metro, also connecting its satellite cities like Gurgaon, Faridabad, Noida and Ghaziabad.
Atal Tunnel
It is the world’s highest highway tunnel, at 10,000 feet, built under the Rohtang Pass in Himachal Pradesh in the Pir Panjal Range of the Himalayas. The 9.02km stretch now links Ladakh to Manali and Chandigarh year-round, avoiding the snow-covered Rohtang Pass in winter. It provides strategic advantage to the Armed Forces, which gets year-long connectivity to border areas.
Chenab Rail Bridge
It isn’t just a design marvel and a stupendous engineering feat, it’s an emotion. For, the Chenab Rail Bridge – the world’s tallest rail bridge at 1,178 feet, spanning the Chenab river – connects Kashmir to the rest of India. It was inaugurated in Aug 2022. The steel and concrete arch bridge carrying a single-track railway line connects Sangaldan and Reasi stations. Train services that will connect Kashmir to Jammu are expected to start soon.
Mumbai Trans Harbour Link
India’s financial capital, Mumbai, has always been synonymous with bad traffic. That changed for some early this year with the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link, a 21.8km six-lane expressway bridge – the world’s 12th longest sea bridge -- connecting Mumbai with Navi Mumbai. The bridge, first conceptualised six decades ago, has cut travel time between Sewri (near Parel in Mumbai) and Chirle in Navi Mumbai to under 20 minutes.