GENERAL MANAGER NORTHERN RAILWAY HOLDS USBRL REVIEW MEETING

New Delhi: General Manager Northern Railway Sh. Ashutosh Gangal chaired a meeting to review the progress of Udhampur Srinagar Baramulla Rail Link National Project (USBRL) in New Delhi, today. Sh. S.P. Mahi, Chief Administrative Officer/ Construction, USBRL, CMD KRCL, Sh. Sanjay Gupta, CMD IRCON Sh. Yogesh Mishra, Principal Head of departments of NR and senior officers of USBRL project were present in the meeting.

Sh. Mahi CAO/C, briefed about the status of construction work being carried out in the Katra-Banihal section of the project. Sh. Sanjay Gupta, CMD KRCL and Sh. Yogesh Mishra CMD IRCON also spoke about their portion of work. Expressing satisfaction on the progress of work GM/NR Sh. Gangal exhorted that the construction work of the project should be completed at the earliest so that the Kashmir valley is connected to the rest of India through the Indian Railways network.

Katra-Banihal, 111 Km remaining portion of the national project is the toughest for construction due to difficult Himalayan geology and lofty mountains and deep riverine gorges.  The section has 38 tunnels with a combined length of 119 Km. At present 160.52 Km of tunneling (95.47 Km main and 65.05 Km escape tunnel) have been completed. The longest railway tunnel in India, Tunnel T-49 with a length of 12.77 Km, was made through in February 2022. The lining work of the tunnel is going on at a fast pace.

The section boasts 927 major and minor bridges totaling 13 Km in length. These bridges include the iconic Chenab Bridge.  The bridge stands 359 m above the river bed and on completion will be the highest railway bridge in the world. The main arch work of the bridge was completed in April 2021. Deck is being laid over the arch. 1238 m of the 1315 m deck has already been accomplished.

Another important structure the Anji Bridge across the Anji Khad will be India’s first cable-stayed Railway Bridge. The main pillar has been erected and the deck work has been completed. The work of harnessing the deck with cables tied to the main pier is ongoing.

Seven Railway stations are being constructed in the Katra-Banihal section, Four in Reasi District; Reasi, Salal-A, Dugga and Basindadhar and three in Ramban district; Sangaldan, Sumber and Arpinchala. Some of these stations are partly located in Tunnels or on Bridges or both. Arpinchala station is nearly complete while work on the others are ongoing at a fast pace. Ballastless Rail line is being set. While other works like construction of portals, ventilation of tunnels and signal and telecom works are also on-going simultaneously.

The already operational 136 Km Banihal-Baramulla rail line is being electrified. This move will help in phasing out use of fossil fuel in train operation in the Kashmir valley. This will not only cut down on the train running cost, reduce carbon footprint and project Railways as a sustainable and eco-friendly mass transportation system. The electrification work of the Banihal-Budgam section is complete and work up to Baramulla is targeted to be completed by October 2022.

Three agencies; IRCON, KRCL and Northern Railway with extensive experience in construction of rail lines are involved in this project. Many international agencies and premier Indian institutes like IIT Roorkee, IIT Delhi, DRDO and Geological Survey of India are providing expertise in planning and implementation.  Several sets of tunneling machineries and cranes have also been imported for the construction work.