Madhavi Latha: Rock Star

ON THE EVENING of June 6, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Vande Bharat train service connecting Kashmir Valley to the rest of the country and two state-of-the-art bridges, Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw posted the details on X. Of the eight points he posted, the fifth was:

“The Chenab Bridge—world’s highest railway arch bridge.
– Length: 1.3 Km
– Height: 359 m (35 m higher than Eiffel Tower)
– Steel welding: More than 600 Km, that is more than the length of Jammu to Delhi Railway track.”

Alongside, another story captured the spotlight—that of Gali Madhavi Latha, one of the engineers who was involved in the construction of the railway bridge over the Chenab, connecting two hills, one of the most challenging facets of the train link to the valley. That same day, a post on X from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, where she is a professor of civil engi­neering, expressed pride about Latha and her team’s contribution to the Chenab bridge. “The team worked on stability of slopes, de­sign & construction of foundations, design of slope stabilisation systems incl. rock anchors to withstand hazards,” it said.

For Latha, with a doctorate in geotechnical engineering, it has been a 17-year-long mission till its completion in 2022. Roped in by the Northern Railways in 2005 as the lead geotechnical consul­tant for the project in the unpredictable, intimidating terrain of the Himalayas, where winds blow at 220kmph, she and her team adopted an approach that revolved around “design as you go”, which is also the title of her paper on the Chenab bridge. “When the experiences gained over 17 years are compiled and reviewed, it is realised that the design schemes, solutions and construction se­quences adopted in this project are not comprehensibly available in textbooks and codes. Most of the solutions were spontaneously developed, tested and executed to suit the specific conditions encountered,” she wrote.

Two days after the inauguration, as she became prominent as one of the heroes of the Chenab bridge project, Latha was unreach­able both at her extension at IISc, which was apparently flooded with calls, and on her mobile. Her WhatsApp profile shows her standing with the Chenab bridge as the backdrop, smiling, her hands spread on either side and wearing a white safety helmet, the same image that went viral on various media and social me­dia platforms praising her role in one of the most challenging engineering projects. The silence from her end was broken by a post, in her name, on LinkedIn saying she was attending a con­ference in Spain and requesting that her privacy be respected. Describing the bridge as a civil engineering marvel, she credited the Indian Railways and AFCONS, the main contractor for the project, with all the glory of planning, design and construction. “My role as a geotechnical consultant to AFCONS was to help in developing slope stabilization schemes and design of foundations on slope. All other media statements like ‘woman behind the mission’, ‘made impossible possible’ and ‘done miracles to build the bridge’ are baseless,” she said, saluting “mil­lions of unsung heroes” who have contributed to the construction of the bridge. She mentioned that she was happy that many fathers have writ­ten to her saying they want their daughters to become like her and many children have said they want to take up civil engineering as a ca­reer choice and thanked all those who had sent congratulatory messages.

She added, however, “please remember that I am one of the thousands who deserve appreciation for Chenab bridge. Please don’t make me unnecessarily famous.” The girl from a humble background in Yedungundlapadu village of Andhra Pradesh, who went on to do her research on the mechanics of soil, ground rein­forcement and earthquake hazard mitigation, earning recognition for her achievements, was not basking in adulation. Instead, she retreated into her world of rocks, distancing herself from the hall of fame. It did not diminish her achievements. The reticence only em­bellished them. Hers was a job involving rocks, yet not set in stone.

The “design as you go” approach helped in resolving various challenges that would have halted construction if a rigid design were implemented for the project, she said in her study that goes into technical details like constructing foundations deep into rock mass, slope stabilisation and assessing rock mass proper­ties: “The Himalayan geological conditions are full of surprises, which were realised through open joints, shear zones and cavities encountered during and af­ter excavations. Because of the steepness of the slopes and closely spaced joints, sealing the cavi­ties was a big challenge.”

The Chenab bridge—a steel and concrete struc­ture located in a seismic zone between Kauri and Bakkal railway stations in Reasi district of Jammu & Kashmir for an all-weather train movement of Vande Bharat, armed with an ice-cutter to clear the snow—put Latha’s research to the test. Describing her study as a summary of her 17 years of involvement in the project, she says it “high­lights the challenges and importance of keeping the design flexible in large geotechnical projects to account for the changing geological, geotechnical and geophysical parameters.”

When she joined IISc in 2004, she was the first woman faculty member in her department. One of her first struggles was to get a separate women’s restroom. An interview on the IISc site quotes her as saying that her childhood dream was to become a doctor: “During my B. Tech. days, I was told by all my teachers that I will become a good researcher. However, my true passion for scientific research was realised during my M. Tech. days.” After doing her BTech in civil engineering from the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Kakinada, graduating with distinction in 1992, Latha went on to do her MTech in geotechnical engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Warangal, for which she won a gold med­al. In 2000, she completed her PhD in civil engineering from IIT Madras. Before Latha joined IISc, she was an assistant professor at IIT Guwahati.

“Seeing your own innovative designs come to life and serve society is the most fulfilling aspect of life in science. It makes life interesting, adventurous and worth the hardships,” she says in the interview. Asked about her advice for aspiring women scien­tists, she says that it is important to be available to the opportuni­ties that come; to be able to take tough career decisions; courage is more important and when one needs to make choices, one should choose what one loves over the convenient or the acceptable— advice she has lived by in her own professional life, particularly on the Chenab bridge journey.

LATHA, WHO HAS been dealing with the complexities of the layers in the earth, has earned recognition and awards for her work—Best Woman Geotechnical Researcher by the Indian Geotechnical Society in 2021, the Professor SK Chatterjee Outstanding Researcher Award from IISc, the Woman Achiever Award from the Karnataka Book of Records, and the SERB POWER Fellowship. She has figured on the list of the Top 75 Women in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) through a ‘She Is’ book series, as part of the commemoration of 75 years of independence. Latha has served as editor-in-chief of the Indian Geotechnical Journal from 2016 to 2022 and has been an associate editor for several international journals.

Her Andhra origin drew a post on X from Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu: “Another Telugu daughter has made India proud! I salute Professor G. Madhavi Latha Garu, one of the brilliant minds behind the world’s highest railway bridge over the Chenab River, inaugurated by Hon’ble Prime Minis­ter Narendra Modi Ji on June 6. Hailing from a small village in Andhra Pradesh, she dedicated 17 years of hard work and sac­rifice to build this architectural marvel for the nation.” He also congratulated the entire team of engineers and construction workers on completing the project, on the challenging terrain and harsh weather conditions, saying that their contributions towards nation-building are inspiring.

Modi had flagged off two Vande Bharat trains from Katra to Srinagar and back, marking the completion of the 272 km Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla railway link which, besides the Chenab bridge, involves engineering marvels like the Anji Khad Bridge, India’s first cable-stayed railway bridge at a length of 725.5m, and 36 main tunnels with a total length of 119.6 km. As Latha puts it, there are several unsung heroes.

As of now Latha is miles from the limelight, but the bridge on the Chenab is a testament to her feat and that of her team. “Like the Chenab bridge project, every large civil engineering project is unique and comprises unique challenges that need to be tackled during the execution. This paper testifies this aspect and narrates the success story of building the world’s highest railway bridge in a difficult terrain, tackling many adverse engineering situations throughout,” says her case study of the bridge.

Chenab railway bridgeGali Madhavi LathainfrastructureJammu & KashmirNarendra Modi