Indian Railways’ engineering wing is known for its expertise and dexterity in different areas of engineering and some of its achievements of ingenuity cannot be described any less than enviable feats. Udhampur – Srinagar- Baramulla Rail link , in itself is a project of its uniqueness in that connecting the two ends by railways is not an ordinary task as several difficult humps have to be encountered , won over and smoothened to make it possible for railway engines to chug safely, securely and with speed without any hassles on the entire rail route. Katra- Banihal part under the mega project is its core and critical section and he biggest uphill task that of line and level has reportedly been achieved by the Northern Railways chiefly by a successful attempt which can be called as a breakthrough in respect of construction of 12.758 km tunnel between picturesque Sumber near Ramban and Arpinchala. Known as T- 49 tunnel , it is going to add one more feather in the cap of Indian Railways as this tunnel will be the longest ever constructed by it as it surpasses and outstrips 11.2 km long tunnel built in Pir Panchal Range of middle Himalayas in Qazigund on the Banihal Qazigund section of the railways.
It is worth noting that the area of Ramban has been posing unique problems and challenges due to the soft rocks highly jointed , squeezing and high ingress of water and with shooting stones with weather vulnerability to disrupt normal traffic on the National Highway for days together and the two ends of the tunnel- T-49 with altitudes of 1200 metres and 1600 metres respectively having been successfully manoeuvred, can be called an engineering feat. Connecting the two ends of the tunnel successfully is a major breakthrough in the entire Railway Project slated to connect Baramulla Sriagar and Udhampur with one another. Out of the entire project of 272 kms , as many as 161 kms has already been commissioned and put into operation and work on the rest of 111 kms is going on with a rapid pace. The drilling of this ”not so easy” looking tunnel has been done by using the latest ”blast and drill ” technique which is known as Australian Tunnelling Method.
This railway project (USBLR) has more feats and records of world level to its credit as the arch bridge over River Chenab in Reasi district of the UT which is 1.3 km long is world’s highest bridge , 30 metres higher than Eiffel Tower in Paris . Added to it, is now this longest tunnel of the Railways on Katra -Banihal section. Its cross section profile is modified to give it a horseshoe shape with a designed speed of 100 kms per hour. The adit or the drainage part of the tunnel is for ventilation, water removal or auxiliary entrance or in other words, all the characteristics which a tunnel should be possessing in terms of modern facilities and assured safety measures.
The technicalities and other details of the tunnel apart and the prestigious Baramulla- Srinagar- Udhampur rail link construction with so much of precision and speed of work, must be seen in the context of the vision to result in transformation of the economic prosperity and progress of Jammu and Kashmir with the requisite speed as a result of hassles free and easily manageable, at affordable cost, mobility particularly throughout the year in this part of the country which has otherwise its own geographical and location(al) constraints. Under such conditions even, the projects like the one under reference, have opened many opportunities for employment and the agencies concerned have engaged the local population for various types of works which thus is loaded with changing the local socio-economic landscape.
The cost of raising of this precious infrastructure , though being enormous, is not that important as it is about how a few years ago, one could only have a dream about it all but not think of ever conceiving it into a reality . Economic progress and prosperity result only after proper and planned investments are made for that purpose, the glaring example of that is how Katra- Banihal railway link is going to be established and how Udhampur- Srinagar- Baramulla- Rail Link (USBLR) is racing towards completion to usher in an era of a near total economic transformation of the entire region.
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