Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Nov 14: After missing several deadlines, the Udhampur-Katra railway line is likely to be inaugurated in the third week of December. With this, the holy town of Katra will get train connectivity with rest of the country.
Reliable sources told EXCELSIOR that Union Ministry of Railways has decided to inaugurate 25-kilometer Udhampur-Katra railway line in the third week of December in order to provide much awaited railway connectivity to the holy town and base camp of Shri Mata Vaishnodevi Shrine.
“At present, inauguration is proposed for December 17 but the exact date would be finalized in consultation with the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, who is likely to give formal green signal to the first ever passenger train on the track”, sources said.
Disclosing that at present some left over works in Tunnel No.1 and Tunnel No.3 are going on at a rapid pace, sources said that the Construction Division of the Northern Railways has conveyed that it will complete the ongoing works within next 10 to 15 days.
“Following completion of work in these tunnels, the Construction Wing will press into service tamping machine, which works by vibrating the ballast and forcing it under the sleepers. These combined actions cause the ballast to form a close matrix which can support the track effectively”, they added.
“The Commissioner Railway Safety, who has already been furnished the requisite documents vis-à-vis the railway line, will carry out inspection before December 10, in order to pave the way for scheduled inauguration of the track”, sources said.
Ferozpur Division under whose jurisdiction the Udhampur-Katra railway line falls, has already notified the station names, their alphabetical and numerical code names besides detailing the kilometer charges between these two stations. There is only one station between Katra and Udhampur and its Alphabetical Code is CRWL and numerical code 03201024. The station at Katra has been designated as Shri Mata Vaishnodevi Katra with alphabetical code name SMVK and numerical code 03201025.
The 23 kilometer Udhampur-Katra track involves 11 kilometer tunnels, nine major bridges, 29 minor bridges and 10 rail over bridges/ rail under bridges. The tallest bridge in this section is 85 meter high and the longest tunnel is 3.15 kilometer.
When contacted to ascertain the status of GRP deployment, SSP GRP Katra A K Mahajan said, “the deployment will be made as soon as we are officially communicated the date for inauguration of the track. We have not been conveyed any date till date”.
He said that work on duty huts and sentry posts along the track, which were demanded by the GRP from the Construction Wing of the Northern Railways, was going on and hopefully the concerned authorities will hand over the same to GRP well before the inspection of CRS.
Meanwhile, keeping in view the fact that number of pilgrims reaching holy town of Katra for darshan of Shri Mata Vaishnodevi cave shrine in the Trikuta Hills will increase considerably following opening of Udhampur-Katra railway line, the Reasi district administration has started making necessary arrangements to ensure that there would not be any chaos in the town.
In order to shift the idle parking of passenger vehicles from the town, the administration has already approached the Housing and Urban Development Department for immediate release of Rs 1.25 crore so that approach road to the site of bus stand identified in the outskirts of the town could be constructed well in time, sources said, adding a Detailed Project Report of establishing modern bus stand on 418 kanal land has also been submitted to the Union Urban Development Ministry for funding.
Follow our WhatsApp channel