12 JULY 2014: World's tallest railway bridge is coming up on Chenab by 2016

Ø  Indian engineers are toiling in the Himalayas to build the world’s tallest railway bridge which is expected to be 35 metres taller than the Eiffel Tower when completed by 2016. The arch-shaped steel structure is being constructed over the Chenab River to link sections of the spectacular mountainous region of India's northern Jammu and Kashmir state. The bridge is expected to be 359 metres high when completed — surpassing the world’s current tallest railway bridge over the Beipanjiang River in China's Guizhou province, which stands at 275 metres high. Work on the bridge started in 2002 but safety and feasibility concerns, including the area's strong winds, saw the project halted in 2008 before being green-lighted again two years later. The estimated cost of the project, which is being handled by Konkan Railway Corporation, a subsidiary of state-owned Indian Railways, is $92 million. The bridge will connect Baramulla to Jammu in the Himalayan state with a travel time of six-and-a-half hours, almost half the time it currently takes. The 1,315-metre long bridge will use up to 25,000 tonnes of steel with some material being transported by helicopters due to the tough terrain

Chenab Rail Bridge (World's tallest)

Ø  If all goes well, a U.S. couple may become the first humans to travel to Mars by as early as 2021. Founders of an Arizona-based private space company called Paragon Space Development Corporation, Taber MacCallum and his wife Jane Poynter are planning a round-trip flyby of the Red planet for themselves. The research team at Paragon has successfully completed the major components of the life support system for the project called “Inspiration Mars”. They are now waiting for the U.S. Government to agree to fund the project and allow the use of the NASA Space Launch System and Orion crew vehicle for transport. In 2021, Mars and the Earth will align in such a way to make this trip possible. The mission is spearheaded by millionaire space tourist Dennis Tito. The couple is famous for Biosphere 2 Experiment in the ’90s to explore tough space conditions on the Earth. During the experiment, they stayed inside a giant glass dome for two years from 1991 to 1993 as part of a prototype space colony.

Ø    Air India formally became a member of Star Alliance, a conglomeration of 26 overseas airlines.