NEW DELHI — Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday inaugurated one of the most ambitious railway projects ever built in India, which will connect the Kashmir Valley to the vast Indian plains by train for the first time.

Dubbed by government-operated Indian Railways as one of the most challenging tracks in the world,er 169-mile line begins in the garrison city of Udhampur in Jammu region and runs through Indian-controlled Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar. The line ends in Baramulla, a town near the highly militarized Line of Control dividing the Himalayan region between India and Pakistan.

The line travels through 36 tunnels and over 943 bridges. The Indian government pegged the total project cost at around $5 billion.

One of the project’s highlights is a 4,314-foot steel and concrete bridge above the Chenab River connecting two mountains with an arch 1,177 feet above the water. Indian Railways compared the height to the Eiffel Tower in Paris, which stands 1,082 feet, and said the bridge is built to last 120 years and endure extreme weather.

— The Associated Press