Title - Banihal-Qazigund rail section to be opened very soon:

The Northern Railway has said that it has completed work on the Banihal-Qazigund section of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramullah rail link project, which is likely to be opened for the public "very soon" after statutory inspection by Commissioner of Railway Safety for running passenger trains.   
Trial run on this section was successfully done on December 28, 2012 and since then ballast trains are running on a regular basis, a press release from Northern Railway said.  
The Banihal-Qazigund section is 17.730 km long, out of which 6.514 km is on cutting and embankment including bridges and 11.215 ms is through a 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.  
As many as 39 bridges have been constructed in this section which include two major bridges, 30 minor bridges and 7 road over-bridges or road under-bridges.  
The Railways have incurred a total expenditure of Rs 1691 crore to complete this section, the release said.  
The Pir Panjal tunnel on this section is 11.215 km long and is the longest transportation tunnel in India and the third longest in Asia.   
The tunnel has been constructed at a total cost of Rs.1300 crore. The Railways took almost seven years to complete the tunne. About 7,500 metric tonnes of steel and 3, 28,000 cubic metres of concrete were used and  10,00,000 cubic meters of underground excavation done to complete the tunnel. About 1300 workers and 150 engineers worked round the clock to accomplish this challenging task, it said.  
In order to expedite the work on this tunnel by creating more working faces, one adit (entrance) of 772.00 metre length and one shaft of 56.00 metre depth and 11.00 metre diameter was constructed.   
The tunnel has been constructed by NATM (New Austrian Tunnelling Method) which was used for the first time on such a 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 behavior while permitting it to develop its inherent strength.  
Maximum overburden on this tunnel is 1100 metres and bore holes up to 640 metres depth were drilled for geotechnical investigations. A three-metre 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, the release said.  
The opening of the section will connect Jammu Division with Kashmir Division of Jammu & Kashmir. The section will have two main railway stations -- Banihal in Jammu Division and Qazigund in Kashmir Division. In addition to these, a halt station is also being provided at Hillar village in Anantnag district which is about 4 km from Qazigund station for the convenience of local public as per their demand.  
At present, passengers travelling between Banihal and Qazigund face a lot of problems due to the closure of the Jawahar Tunnel in winter due to heavy snowfall. During this winter also, one- way movement of vehicles was resorted to between Jammu and Srinagar on National Highway alongwith sudden closures for almost four months from December 2012 to March this year, owing to heavy snowfall and slippery conditions.  
"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," the release added.