Srinagar- The longest transportation tunnel of the country on the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) was opened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday as he flagged off the first electrified trains of the Kashmir valley.
“Prime Minister Modi was present in Jammu and he virtually flagged off two electrified trains simultaneously — one from Srinagar to Sangaldan in the down direction and the other from Sangaldan to Srinagar in the up direction,” a railway official said.
He added that the prime minister also inaugurated the 48.1-km-long Banihal-Khari-Sumber-Sangaldan section. “This longest tunnel, which is 12.77-km long and known as T-50, falls between the Khari-Sumber section,” the official said.
According to the Northern Railway (NR), trains can now run from Baramulla to Sangaldan via Banihal, which used to be the last or originating station earlier.
T-50 is supposed to be the most challenging of the 11 tunnels in the Banihal-Khari-Sumber-Sangadal section.
According to railway officials associated with the project, the tunnel work started around 2010 and it took almost 14 years to operationalise it.
“All safety measures have been taken inside the tunnel to meet emergency situations. An escape tunnel has been constructed parallel to T-50 to evacuate passengers in case of any emergency,” an official said.
“At every 375 metres, a connecting passage between the escape tunnel and T-50 has been made so that the passengers can be brought to the escape tunnel and then, carried to their desired destinations in vehicles,” he added.
The official told PTI that in order to tackle a fire incident, water pipes have been laid on both sides of the tunnel with an opening valve provided at every 375 metres so that water can be sprayed on a train from both sides to douse the flames.
“Escape tunnels have been created for other bigger tunnels too,” he said.
According to NR officials, the opening up of the Banihal-Khari-Sumber-Sangaldan section has brought them a step closer to achieving the dream of running a train from the Kasmir valley in the north to Kanyakumari on the southern tip of the country.
“Earlier, eight diesel trains (four each from one side) were operating between Baramulla and Banihal. Today, Prime Minister Modi not only inaugurated the extension of the Banihal route to Sangaldan via Khari and Samber, but also flagged off the first electrified trains on the whole route from Baramulla to Sangaldan,” the official said.
Now, eight electrified trains have started running between Baramulla and Banihal and four of those have been extended to Sangaldan.
“The four other trains will also be extended up to Sangaldan after a couple of months,” the official added.
According to experts associated with the project, the first section of the USBRL — the Qazigund-Baramulla section — was operationalised by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in 2009. In July 2013, the Banihal-Qazigund section, which included the operationalisation of the 11.2-km-long T-80 Pir Panjal tunnel, was opened.
“Once the complete USBRL opens in the coming months, passengers will enjoy infrastructural marvels, such as the Chenab bridge, the highest railway bridge in the world, and the Anji bridge, which is the first cable-stayed bridge of the Indian Railways,” an NR official said, adding that the total length of the USBRL is 272 km and the cost of the project is Rs 41,119 crore.
Kashmir Will Connect Kanyakumari By Rail
The day is not far when Kashmir will be connected with Kanyakumari by rail, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday as he commissioned a newly completed 48.1-km stretch of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) project.
The 272-km USBRL is being commissioned in phases — the 118-km Qazigund-Baramulla section was done in October 2009, the 18-km Banihal-Qazigund section in June 2013 and the 25-km Udhampur-Katra section in July 2014.
Development works are happening simultaneously, unlike in the past when work was done in the rest of India but its benefits were either not available to the people of Jammu and Kashmir or were made available very late, the prime minister said here while addressing a public rally.
“Today new airports are being built across the country. Jammu and Kashmir is also not behind. Today the expansion work of the Jammu airport has started. The dream of connecting Kashmir to Kanyakumari by rail has also moved forward today with the commissioning of the (48.1-km) section between Baramulla and Sangaldan,” he said.
Officials said the work on the Katra-Sangaldan section is likely to be completed by May or June.
Prime Minister Modi said that “the day is not far when people will be able to travel across the country by taking a train from Kashmir”.
“Today such a big campaign for electrification of the railways is going on in the entire country, and this region has got a big benefit from it,” said Modi, who also flagged off the first electric train in Kashmir from Baramulla to Sangaldan.
This is going to help a lot in keeping pollution down, he highlighted.
He said when a modern train service in the form of ‘Vande Bharat’ was started in the country, one of its initial routes was in Jammu and Kashmir. “We made it easier to reach the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine (at Katra in Jammu) and I am happy that two Vande Bharat trains are presently running on this route,” Modi said.
The prime minister, who also inaugurated many roads and laid the foundation for new ones, said road-connectivity across Jammu and Kashmir, including in villages, cities and national highways, has been given due priority.
“The second phase of the Srinagar Ring Road on completion will make it easier for people to visit the Manasbal Lake and the Kheerbhawani temple, while the completed works on the Srinagar-Baramulla-Uri highway will benefit farmers and the tourism sector,” he said.
He said the expansion of the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway will further improve connectivity and the travel between Jammu and Delhi will become easies.
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