India, June 7 -- When India's most audacious railway project, the Chenab Bridge in Jammu & Kashmir, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, the spotlight turned not just to the world's tallest railway arch, but also to one of its key behind-the-scenes minds, Prof G Madhavi Latha from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru.

Deccan Herald reported that for nearly two decades, Prof Latha, a rock engineering expert from IISc's Civil Engineering Department, played a pivotal advisory role in the design and construction of the Rs.1,486-crore Chenab Bridge, an engineering feat that now connects the Kashmir Valley to the rest of the country by rail.

Rising 359 metres above the riverbed, the bridge towers taller than...