The prime minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday dedicated to the nation the Banihal-Qazigund railway line in Jammu and Kashmir, which also has an 11-km-long tunnel across the treacherous Pir Panjal mountain range—making it the longest such transportation passage in the country and the second longest in Asia.
The 18-km long Banihal-Qazigund section of the ambitious mountain railway, which for the first time connects the Kashmir Valley with Jammu region, was inaugurated by the prime minister in presence of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, state chief minister Omar Abdullah, governor NN Vohra and many Union ministers.
Singh flagged off the first train and boarded it for a journey across the 11-km tunnel. The distance between Banihal and Qazigund, which is also one of the most treacherous stretches in the entire Kashmir rail network project, will reduce from 35 km by road to 17.5 km on train. The Banihal-Qazigund section was built at a cost of about Rs 1,700 crore.
About 1,300 workers and 150 engineers worked tirelessly overcoming all odds for the last seven years to accomplish the engineering marvel. The work on the tunnel had started in November 2005. The tunnel has been constructed using new Austrian tunnelling method (NATM) and it is for the first time such a method has been used on such a large scale in the country. Hindustan Construction Company, which constructed the project, said the Pir Panjal tunnel is the longest transportation tunnel in the country and second longest in Asia after China’s.
The tunnel is totally water proof and equipped with a fire fighting system across the entire length of the tunnel. The tunnel passes around 440 metres below the existing Jawahar road tunnel. While train service is already operational within the Valley on the 118-km long route between Qazigund and Baramulla in north Kashmir, the 148-km Katra-Qazigund line is expected to be completed in three years. The 25-km Udhampur-Katra section is likely to be opened in a few months. The Udhampur-Katra-Banihal section, which will connect the Valley with the rest of the country's rail network, is expected to be completed by 2017.
