The Woman behind the Steel Arc- Dr. G Madhavi Latha

It’s not every day you get to meet someone who changes the way you look at engineering. The Kochi International Foundation (KIF) brought to Kochi none other than Dr. Madhavi Latha - the driving force behind the iconic Steel Arch of the newly inaugurated Chenab Bridge. On 11 August 2025, at the RECCA Club in Kakkanad, I joined 10 of our fist year M.Tech students for a day that blended inspiration, engineering brilliance, and stories from one of the most challenging bridge projects in the world. 

The talk began with a brief introduction about Dr. Madhavi Latha’s journey. She is the first engineer from her village and first female faculty in the Civil Department at IISc, Bangalore. Her journey and the path that lead her into building the Chenab bridge is truly remarkable. It took her team 17 years to build the world’s tallest railway bridge. Learning first hand the challenges and uncertainties encountered by the team in executing the project, blew our minds.

She spoke eloquently about the project and the challenges faced. The river flows into Pakistan and hence, the area is politically sensitive. They had to keep every project aspect like dumping the earthwork, blasting etc considering the political sensitivity. There were environmental considerations as well and hence, they disposed off the waste/earthwork carefully. The earthwork removed and the subsequent loading by the arch bridge was considerably less, hence less challenging. The soil conditions, topography and the fact that it's part of the Indian plate crashing into the eurasian plate meant the complete opposite. The soil conditions were such that proper cores couldn’t be obtained from bore holes. The soil is soft, consisting of dolomite and shale. It also meant different types of joints leading to the threat of slope instability and landslides. They employed techniques shotcreting, soil nailing, preblasting, grouting etc as when required. The project challenges kept changing at every phase and they received very different analysis from different experts. They had to validate at every step by conducting different tests (like plate load). The team had to innovate and come up with ingenious solutions at every challenge thrown at them. She calls their approach- ‘design as you go’.

The fact that the team under her leadership was able to pull this off is a marvel of engineering is inspiring. It is also a testament to the success of global partnerships. 

I hope that her journey and this bridge inspires generations to come.

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Neeraja Nair, AP, CE