Northern Railway is going to achieve one more milestone in Jammu & Kashmir State in transportation sector with the completion of Banihal-Qazigund section of Udhampur-Baramullah-Srinagar Rail link Project. Trials have been started in the section by Railways with the arrival of first Track Tamping machine at Banihal on 24.12.12 from Qazigund. All the major works have been completed and finishing touch is being given. This section will be ready for opening shortly. The total expenditure of Rs. 1691.00 Crores has been incurred by the railways to complete this section.
Banihal-Qazigund section is 17.729 Kms long out of which 6.514 Km portion is on cutting and embankment including bridges and 11.215 Kms is through tunnel. About 11, 78,500.00 cubic meters of earthwork in cutting and filling has been done. The maximum depth of cutting is 15.20 meters and maximum height of embankment is 16.70 meters. 39 nos. of bridges have been constructed in this section which include two major bridges, 30 nos. of minor bridges and 7 nos. of ROBs/RUBs.
The section consists of only one tunnel i.e. Pir Panjal Tunnel which is 11.215 Km long. This tunnel is longest transportation tunnel in India and second longest in Asia. The tunnel has been constructed with total cost of Rs.1300.00 Crores. Almost seven years have been taken by Railways to complete this tunnel. About 7,500 Metric Tonnes of steel, 3, 28,000 cubic meters of concrete has been used and 10,00,000 cubic meters of underground excavation has been done to complete the tunnel. 1300 workers and 150 engineers worked round the clock to accomplish this challenging task.
In order to expedite the work on this tunnel by creating more working faces, one Adit of 772.00 meter length and one Shaft of 56.00 meter depth and 11.00 meter diameter was constructed. The tunnel has been constructed by NATM (New Austrian Tunnelling Method) which was firstly used on such large scale in India. This method optimizes the tunnel design by mobilizing the inherent ground strength in adopting a curved section, providing primary support system immediately after the excavation and monitoring the ground behaviour while permitting it to develop its inherent strength. Maximum overburden on this tunnel is 1100 meters and bore holes up to 640 meters depth were drilled for Geotechnical investigations. A 3.0 meters wide road has been provided inside the tunnel for maintenance, emergency rescue and relief operations. The tunnel has been made water proof by providing continuous PVC membrane between primary and secondary lining. The tunnel has been equipped with the State of the Art air quality monitoring system, ventilation system, communication system, fire fighting system and emergency rescue system in case of emergency. Ballastless Track system has been provided inside the tunnel which is pollution and maintenance free with very good riding quality. By adoption of these systems, Pir Panjal tunnel will be totally dry, pollution free, safe, comfortable and completely illuminated.
Opening of Banihal-Qazigund railway section will be a turning point not only in the history of Jammu & Kashmir State only, but for the Indian history. A lot of problems are being faced by passengers travelling between Banihal and Qazigund due to closure of Jawahar Tunnel in winter season owing to heavy snow fall. All these problems will be reduced to a large extent by running of train services between Banihal-Qazigund. Moreover the distance between Banihal and Qazigund will also be reduced from 35 Km road length to 17.729 Kms railway line. It will be a cheaper, faster and dependable mode of transport.