Railways working to connect Kashmir with rest of country

SRINAGAR: The Indian Railways has intensified work on all the bottlenecks to connect Kashmir valley by railway link to the rest of the country. In this direction, recently they completed a major portion of work on the longest rail tunnel in the country in the Ramban sector of Jammu region.
Talking to the media, the project manager of this tunnel said that major portion of the work on the rail tunnel which is 12.75 km long in the entire Udhampur-Baramulla-Srinagar Rail (UBSR) Link in Jammu and Kashmir, has been completed. The engineers have named this tunnel as T49, and they are very keen to complete it as soon as possible so that Kashmir valley is linked by train to the rest of the country.
Recently, the project manager of this tunnel said that it was very difficult to complete so much of work on this tunnel as it surpasses the Peer Panjal Tunnel (11.2km) in length and the work has been very challenging so far. According to the manager of Afcons Infrastructure Ltd, they have completed 7.32 km of the total tunnel which is nearly 60% of the entire tunnel length. He told media in Jammu that they have also constructed two adits, twenty cross passages, two bridges, and a station yard, besides working for the completion of the tunnel.
The Indian Railways have been working very hard to complete all the bottlenecks, especially this tunnel, so that Kashmir valley is connected by rail and it would be a game-changer for the horticulture and agriculture sectors, as the produce can reach without waiting for days on the Srinagar-Jammu highway. The Government of Jammu and Kashmir has been facilitating Indian Railways to complete the project especially, while getting the land at certain villages which was delayed earlier. In Jammu, Afcons Infrastructure Ltd Project Manager Chandra Shekhar Dixit, while talking to media, gave details of how they have been working for the completion of the longest tunnel to connect Kashmir with the rest of the country by rail. He said that one of the major challenges during the construction of the tunnel was pouring of overt gantry concrete from an upward gradient to a downward gradient. The pouring rate of overt gantry concrete should not be more than 5.8 cum/hr.
He said there were geological challenges like cavity formation due to the presence of a shear zone in the escape tunnel. The construction activities were also impacted by huge water ingress in the areas of construction of this tunnel. Kashmir valley is eagerly waiting for the completion of the rail project as it will give a boost to agriculture, horticulture and also to the tourism sector.