J&K: Rail safety chief shows green flag to key Katra-Reasi section
On January 4, the chief administrative officer of the USBRL project, Sandeep Gupta, conducted the first trial run of the electric train from Katra to Banihal
After successful trial runs of passenger and freight trains, the commissioner of railway safety, northern circle, Dinesh Chand Deshwal, has given the go-ahead to commission the newly constructed 17-km Katra-Reasi rail track.
The Katra-Reasi section was the toughest in the 272-km Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) broad-gauge project. “The consent of the CRS (in a seven-page authorisation letter) clears the way for the commissioning of the Katra-Reasi rail section. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to inaugurate the Vande Bharat Express from Katra to Kashmir around January 20,” a senior railway official said. The date of the inauguration is yet to be finalised.
On January 4, the chief administrative officer of the USBRL project, Sandeep Gupta, conducted the first trial run of the electric train from Katra to Banihal. This was followed by an inspection by Deshwal and a team of railway officials on January 7 and 8. Besides inspecting the tunnels and bridges on the stretch, including the country’s first cable-stayed rail bridge on the Anji river, a speed trial was conducted on the 111-km Katra to Banihal track.
Longest tunnel and tallest bridge
The section includes 27 tunnels and 37 bridges. The longest rail tunnel in the country, T-49, which is 12.75km long, falls in this section.
Work on the USBRL project started in 2005-06. While the 118-km Qazigund-Baramulla section in Kashmir was inaugurated in October 2009, the 18-km Banihal-Qazigund and 25-km Udhampur-Katra sections were commissioned in June 2013 and July 2014, respectively.
In February last year, the trial run of an electric train was successfully conducted on the 40-km track between Banihal and Sangaldan in Ramban district.
The track to Kashmir has 38 tunnels and 927 bridges. It includes the world’s highest railway arch bridge at 359 metres on the Chenab in Reasi district. Last June, an eight-bogie electric train successfully completed a trial run between Sangaldan and Reasi stations. The train had run on the arch bridge, dubbed the eighth wonder of the world, as it is 35 metres higher than the Eiffel Tower and 28,000 tonnes of steel has gone into it.
Quake-resistant bridge links mountains
One side of the foundation of this bridge is equal to half the size of a soccer field. The foundations have been made with a technology to resist earthquakes of a magnitude of 8 on the Richter scale.
Similarly, 18,000 bars and cables were used to provide a strong foundation. In the event of a quake, seismic waves from the foundations to the bridge structure above would be checked by bearings. While the impact of the quake will be tolerated by the foundations, the bearings will not allow the waves to travel into the structure.
The 1.3-km bridge built at a cost of ₹1,548-crore can withstand winds up to 266km/hour.
The cable-stayed bridge over the Anji connects two mountains. Next to the world’s highest rail bridge on the Chenab at Kouri village, the cable-stayed rail bridge has 96 cables. The total length of the cable strands is 653km. The bridge was built in 11 months.
This rail link to Kashmir can serve as a safe option for Amarnath pilgrims in case there’s disruption on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway (NH44).
