| Suspense over inaugural of Udhampur- Katra rail link | | After 42 days of final trial, Railway Safety Commission yet to give clearance | | Bijay Charak
Jammu, Jan 22: Downplaying the speculations of inaugurating Udhampur- Katra railway track, in the beginning of 2014, Northern Railway authorities are seemingly still indecisive as after the lapse of 42 days, since the Railway Safety Commission (RSC) had conducted the final trail on the track, same has yet to give final clearance. Sources further said that Northern Railways General Manager VK Gupta had visited Udhampur on December 9, 2013 and a special train was flagged off to conduct final trial over the route", sources said, adding that VK Gupta had announced that it was the final trial and Dr Manmohan Singh would inaugurate the link, after Railway Safety Commission would give clearance, but same was still awaited. A higher official of Northern Railway, seeking anonymity said that no final date for the inauguration of track has been finalized so far. "The Railway Safety Commission is yet to give clearance to us and once we will get the RSC clearance, the inauguration will be done anytime", said, adding that though it was announced in past that inauguration would be done in beginning but due to technical glitches same has been delayed. Pertinently, the distance of Udhampur-Katra rail track is 25 kilometer and it involves about 11 km of tunneling, 9 important/ major bridges, 29 minor bridges and 10 ROB/RUBs. The actual construction cost of the stretch was Rs 928 Crores within hiccups was started in 1999, however deadline was fixed 2005, but the progress on said project came to halt in year 2006 when engineers had come across a water body in the middle of the alignment of 2.4 km long tunnel no 3 and the design of the tunnel had to be changed, which had delayed the project. All the tunneling as well as bridge works had been completed and the trial too has been conducted last year in December. Earlier, the inauguration of the railway track by the Prime Minster in June 2013 was postponed because after some technical snags along the track was detected. |
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