Stiffness matrix of order 12 × 12, for a curved beam element has been formulated involving all the forces together, using Castigliano's theorem. Effects of transverse shear forces and tangential thrust are also taken into account. In earlier works, stiffness submatrices for the two uncoupled systems of forces are formulated independently and then they are combined to give the overall 12 × 12 matrix. A program subroutine, NEWCBM for the stiffness matrix formulation of curved beams has been written in FORTRAN which can be added to the element library of general purpose computer programs like SAP-IV and its improved versions. Example problems have been worked to check the accuracy of this formulation. © 1985.