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| Six years on, J&K rail project starts all over | | | New Delhi | Aug 13
China took barely five years to build its first railway line to Tibet — the 1,200 km "roof of the world" track between Golmud and Lhasa at altitudes above 4,000 metres. In contrast, India's six-year-old project of building its first railway line to Kashmir has been suspended due to defects in the alignment of the 125-km track in the high-relief mountainous region between Katra and Banihal at altitudes ranging from 800 to 1,700 metres.
Taking a leaf out of China's book, the railway ministry decided last month to change the present alignment of the track, which skirts the mountains and encounters landslide prone areas at the bridges and tunnel portals. The proposed alignment reduces the route length from 125 km to 70 km as it is based on the latest technology of tunnelling through the mountains. This is meant to reduce not only the exposure to landslide-prone areas but also the safety and security risks inherent in the curved tunnels of the existing alignment.
While ordering suspension of all works on the Katra-Banihal stretch, Railway Boards's member (engineering) S K Vij has put on record that the feasibility of building the mega-arch bridge on Chenab, touted as the world's tallest bridge, has not yet been established because of treacherous geological conditions in that area. Vij directed one of the two contractors in the project, Konkan Railway Corporation, to submit slope stability analysis of the site. In the proposed alignment, the bridge will be smaller and more stable.
The project of providing a railway link between Jammu & Kashmir was launched in 2002 by the Vajpayee government as part of a package of measures for the troubled state. On a visit to Srinagar in 2003, the then prime minister had even announced that the first train would reach the valley by August 15, 2007.
In reality, though 90% of the Katra-Banihal stretch was to be through tunnels or upon bridges, it was found that the construction has been so slow that only Rs 550 crore out of the estimated cost of 7,300 crore had been spent in six years. Worse, even in that meagre construction, it was found that four of the tunnels had already collapsed sending Rs 200 crore down the drain.
The modified alignment under consideration, besides drawing on the advancements in tunnelling technology, offers the advantage of a double line even as it reduces the cost of the project.
While the present alignment with a single track is estimated to cost Rs 7,300 crore, the proposed one is calculated to incur an expenditure of Rs 6,500 crore over five years, according to ministry documents. Among other improvements, the proposed alignment will reduce the number of tunnels from 62 to eight and the number of bridges from 96 to seven. |
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