To cater to the public
demand for new halt stations in the Kashmir Valley region, Hon’ble Minister for
Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu laid the foundation stone for
construction of five new halt stations viz.Sangdan, Monghall, Ratnipora,
Nadigam & Razwan on the Baramulla-Qazigund Rail Section”at a
ceremonial program held at Sher-i-Kashmir International, Conference Centre at
Srinagar today (29th June 2017) in the august presence of Ms.
Mehbooba Mufti, Hon’ble Chief Minister, J&K Dr. Nirmal Kumar Singh, Hon’ble
Dy. Chief Minister, J&K and Sh. Nazir Ahmed Laway, Hon'ble Member of
Parliament, Rajya Sabha were the distinguished guests on the occasion. Shri
R.K. Kulshrestha General Manager, Northern Railway and other Senior Railway
officials were also present in the function.
The new halt stations
between Baramula-Quazigund stations are: Sangdan (Quazigund-Sadura), Monghall (Sadura-Anantnag),
Ratnipora (Awantipura-Kakapora), Nadigam and Razwan stations (Budgam-Mazhom).
These halts would cater to the transportation needs of residents living in
these areas.
The all-weather
special DEMU trains in the Kashmir valley has become a veritable life-line to
the residents providing mobility with convenience. On an average 25,000
passengers travel each day in these DEMUs with a corresponding tickets
earnings accounting Rs. 3.5 lakh per day.
Background information
of Railway Services in Kashmir Valley:
With a view to provide
an alternative and a reliable mass transportation system to Jammu &
Kashmir, Govt. of India planned a 326 km (later extended to cover 345 km) long
Railway Line joining the Kashmir Valley with the Indian Railways network. The
Jammu-Udhampur-Katra-Quazigund-Baramulla rail line, a project of great
importance for the local populace and the country as a whole, has been declared
as “National Project”. This project is, perhaps, the most difficult new railway
line project undertaken on Indian subcontinent. The terrain passes through the
Himalayas, which are young fold mountains full of geographical surprises, high
tectonic activity and extremely cold weather conditions.
The completion of
Jammu-Udhampur railway link in 2005 spelled the dawn of new era in rail
connectivity. The rail line in the Kashmir Valley was constructed in a phased
manner with the Railway steadily commissioning rail sections between
Anantnag-Mazahom in October 2008, the Mazahom-Baramulla section in February
2009 and the rest 18 km long section between Quazigund-Anantnag in October 2009
thus completing the 119 kilometre Qazigund-Baramulla railway line of the
Kashmir Valley. The Railway since then is working steadily to complete the
remaining of the 345 km long railway line. The Udhampur-Katra 25 km section was
commissioned in July 2014 and the Katra-Banihal 111Km work is in progress
(Target: March 2021).
This portion being
constructed by Northern Railway, KRCL and IRCON will have 97.34 Km of Tunnels,
27 Major & 10 Minor Bridges and 203 Km of Access road. 45% of the work is
complete with an expenditure of 9419 Crore. The USBRL Project is a culmination
of a large number of Tunnels and Bridges, one of the most important and
challenging being across the deep gorge of Chenab River near Salal Hydro Power
Dam. This necessitated the construction of a long span bridge in the Seismeic
Zone V. The total Length of the ‘Chenab Bridge’ is 1315 m having a design speed
of 100 km and can withstand wind velocity upto 266 Kmph having a life span of
120 years. The Bridge is made up of steel arches and is aesthetically designed
using local expertise and construction material. The height of the bridge is
359 m which is about 35 m taller than Eiffel Tower in Paris. When complete this
will be the highest railway bridge in the world.
As part of the project
to knit the zone of Jammu with the Kashmir valley which is separated through
the majestic Pir Panjal mountain range, Indian Railway had earlier constructed
the 11.21 Km long ‘Tunnel T-80’. This is the longest transportation tunnel in
Asia. The existing stations that lie in the Banihal-Baramula section include
Banihal, Shahabad Halt, Qazigund, Sadura, Anantnag, Bijbehara, Panjgam,
Awantipora, Kakapora, Pampore, Srinagar, Budgam, Mazhom, Pattan, Hamre, Sopore
and Baramulla. 15 pairs of DEMU services ply on the rail section
providing all-weather connectivity in this region. Additional DEMUs were
introduced in July 2015 and later Fast DEMUs for convenience of office-goers
and students were put into service in May 2016 between Banihal-Baramula and
Baramula-Budgam. Vadi Ki Sair-a Children Special train was introduced between
Banihal to Baramulla from 26.11.2016, which now runs on every 2nd
and 4th Sunday of the month.
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AKS/ENS