70% work on Katra-Banihal section complete
Govind Sharma
REASI, Jan 9: Former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s dream project of connecting Kashmir valley with the rest of the country through train is likely to become reality in 2022 as 70% work has been completed on Katra-Banihal section of Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla project and work on remaining portion is going on at fast pace.
While Banihal to Baramulla (136 km) and Udhampur to Katra (25 km) sections, which are also part of this project, have already been commissioned, the work on Katra to Banihal (111 km) section got delayed due to litigations, inaccessible working sites and weather vagaries. Due to this, the work on this national project could be started in the year 2014.
Out of 111 km Katra-Banihal section, 53.66 km has been assigned to Konkan Railway Corporation Limited (KRCL) whereas the remaining work of this section has gone to IRCON. The construction of 17 tunnels with total length of 46.1 kilometers and 23 bridges with 4.6 kilometres length falls under the jurisdiction of KRCL.
The intensity of challenges before the KRCL can be gauged from the fact that it had to make about 160 Km of approach roads including road tunnels and many temporary Bailey bridges to reach the working sites.
According to Chief Engineer, KRCL (Coordination), R K Hegde, so far 13 tunnels out of 17 have been constructed and cumulative tunneling of 37.1 Km out of 46.1 Km has been completed whereas the work is in progress on four other tunnels. Out of 23 bridges, the work on 12 bridges has been completed while the work on remaining 9 bridges including world’s tallest railway bridge over Chenab river is going on smoothly.
Once completed, the bridge on River Chenab will be an engineering marvel and an attracting spot for tourists as it will be the highest railway arch bridge (359 m above river bed) in the world. This iconic bridge soaring 359 meters above the bed of the River Chenab will be 35 metre (m) higher than the iconic Eiffel Tower in Paris. The overall length of the bridge is 1315 meters and highest quality steel of 12mm to 90 mm is being used for its construction.
Hegde said that the work on viaduct portion of the bridge at Bakkal end is nearing completion while the erection of arch from both ends with the help of cable crane is under process and about 70 % work of the arch has been completed. The unique feature of this bridge is that it has been designed with such a technique in consultation with DRDO that it can withstand blasts and quakes and even in case of breakage/removal of one pier/trestle, it will not collapse and remain operational at 30 kmph speed.
“The second major bridge of this part of the project is Anji Bridge (687m), which will be first cable stayed Railway Bridge in the country, About 60 % work on it has been completed. Its unique feature is that it will have integrated monitoring system by means of numerous sensors installed at specified locations for recording on real time basis the various critical parameters to monitor the structural health of the bridge,” he informed.
The project was to be completed in June 2022 but in December 2019, when the Railway Minister Piyush Goyal himself visited the project sites, he fixed December 2021 as the new deadline for the project. However, the engineers said that keeping in view challenges before them it would not be possible to meet the deadline of December 21. However, they are confident of completing the project within the original time-frame.
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