Banihal - Qazigund rail line completed =>Banihal-Qazig -und section of Udhampur-Srinag -ar-Baramullah Rail link project has been completed by Northern Railway and is all set to be opened for public very soon, after statutory inspection by Commissioner of Railway Safety for running passenger trains. Trial run on this section was successfully done last December and since then ballast trains are running on regular basis. According to a spokesperson of Northern Railways, the Banihal-Qazigun -d section is 17.730 Kms long, out of which 6.514 Km portion is on cutting and embankment including bridges and remaining 11.215 Kms is through the tunnel. About 11, 78,500.00 cubic meters of earthwork in cutting and filling has been done. The maximum depth of cutting is 15.20 meters and maximum height of embankment is 16.70 meters. 39 nos. of bridges have been constructed in this section which include two major bridges, 30 nos. of minor bridges and 7 nos. of ROBs/RUBs. The total expenditure of Rs. 1691.00 Crores has been incurred by the railways to complete this section. The section consists of only one tunnel i.e. Pir Panjal Tunnel which is 11.215 Km long. This tunnel is the longest transportation tunnel in India and third longest in Asia. The tunnel has been constructed with a cost of Rs.1300 crores spread over seven years. About 7,500 Metric Tonnes of steel, 3, 28,000 cubic meters of concrete has been used and 10,00,000 cubic meters of underground excavation has been done to complete the tunnel. 1300 workers and 150 engineers worked round the clock to accomplish this challenging task. Opening of Banihal-Qazigun -d railway section will connect Jammu division with Kashmir valley, the spokesperson said adding that this section will have two main railway stations i.e. Banihal and Qazigund. In addition to these a halt station is also being provided at Hillar village in Anantnag district which is about 4 Km from Qazigund station for the convenience of local public as per their demand. Nowadays a lot of problems are being faced by passengers travelling between Banihal and Qazigund due to closure of Jawahar Tunnel in winter season owing to heavy snow fall. During this winter also one way movement of vehicles was resorted to between twin capital cities of Jammu&Srinagar on National Highway along with sudden closures for almost four months from Dec’12 to Mar’13 owing to heavy snowfall and slippery conditions leading to a lot of inconvenience to stranded passengers. All these problems will be reduced to a large extent by running of train services between BanihalQazigund -. Moreover the distance between Banihal and Qazigund will also be reduced from 35 Km road length to 17.729 Kms railway line. It will be a cheaper, faster and dependable mode of transport, he added.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Jun 2013 03:47:05 +0000