Produced by: Manoj Kumar
Dr. Madhavi Lata spent nearly two decades engineering the impossible across Himalayan rock.
Her geotechnical mastery underpinned the world’s highest rail bridge—359m above the Chenab.
Faced with fractured rocks and hidden voids, her team designed adaptively, on-site and on the fly.
Landslides, winds, quakes, snow—Lata helped the bridge defy everything the Himalayas threw at it.
Not just engineering muscle—she was the first woman in IISc Civil Engineering, smashing norms.
Her critical calls on rock anchors and unstable foundations kept the bridge standing firm.
Lata didn’t just theorize—she documented it all in a now-landmark case study for global engineers.
From JNTU to IIT Madras to Best Woman Geotechnical Researcher, her résumé is rock-solid.
Beyond bolts and concrete, her work stitched Kashmir to India—engineering as national unity.