In a bold statement of engineering ambition and national integration, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday inaugurated two record-breaking railway bridges in Jammu and Kashmir projects aimed at stitching the Himalayan region more tightly into India’s vast railway network.

The world's highest railway bridge, an ambitious piece of engineering across a mountain valley in Kashmir, opened Friday (local time) by Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi, just weeks after a deadly tourist massacre in the Himalayan region sparked a brief conflict with neighboring Pakistan.

India Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated one of the most ambitious and strategic railway projects the nation has ever built.