Title - Asia’s longest tunnel ready in Pir Panjal, trains to chug from Feb-Mar

JAMMU, Dec 25: In a significant development, Asia’s longest transportation tunnel has been made ready in Pir Panjal range of mountains connecting Banihal area of Jammu region with Qazigund in the Kashmir valley and Member Engineering of the Ministry of Railways is going to conduct trial run of the train on this section on December 27, 2012, which will be thrown open for normal passenger service in February-March next year.

The engineering marvel has been created within a period of seven years at a cost of Rs 900 crore and this tunnel would not only ease the transportation problem during the winters when inclement weather forces closure of Jawahar Tunnel but also considerably reduce the travel time between the two places.

Official sources told EXCELSIOR that as all the major works on Pir Panjal tunnel, which has the distinction of being Asia’s longest transportation tunnel, have been completed and the ancillary infrastructure would be in place by January 31, 2013, the dead line fixed by the Union Government, the Member Engineering, Ministry of Railways, A P Mishra is arriving on December 27, 2012 to carry out trial run on Banihal-Qazigund section.

Accompanied by senior officers of IRCON India International, Hindustan Construction Corporation and Ministry of Railways, Mr Mishra would get trial run conducted by traveling in a locomotive from Qazigund to Banihal in order to personally take stock of the works having been completed till date and the pace on ancillary works vis-à-vis ventilation of tunnel, installation of fire fighting equipment and Close Circuit Cameras, sources informed.

In response to a question, sources said that Banihal-Qazigund section would be ready in all respects well before January 31, 2013 following which Commissioner Railway Safety (CRS) would carry out its detailed exercise before giving green signal for chugging of passenger trains on this section, which is likely in February-March, 2013.

Following the commissioning of this section, people would be able to travel up to Banihal from Baramulla and vice-versa in the trains. With the construction of 11.3 kilometer long tunnel in the Pir Panjal, the distance between Banihal and Qazigund, which is also one of the most treacherous stretches in the entire Kashmir rail network project, has been reduced from 35 kilometers to just 17.5 kilometers on train. The remaining 6.2 kilometers area of Banihal-Qazigund section is in open, sources said.

Completed in a span of seven years by IRCON International Limited, the work on creation of engineering marvel was started in July 2005 and the breakthrough was achieved in October 2011. The entire Banihal-Qazigund section has been completed at a cost of Rs 1691 crore and an amount of Rs 900 crore was spent on construction of 11.3 kilometers long tunnel only.

In response to another question, sources said, "as the tunnel has been constructed by New Austrian Tunneling Method (NATM), the trains can chug at a speed of 120 kilometers per hour", adding "it is for the first time in the country that NATM has been used on such a large scale. About 7500 metric tonnes of steel and 3,28,000 cubic meters of concrete has been used in the construction of tunnel while as 10 lakh cubic meters of underground excavation has been done".

"About 1300 workers and 150 engineers worked round the clock to accomplish this challenging task", sources said, adding "the tunnel has been made water proof by providing continuous PVC membrane between primary and secondary lining".

About the works presently going on in the tunnel, they said that on one hand proper track geometry is being ensured with the help of tamping machine while as on the other hand ventilation, communication and electric works are going on at the rapid pace.

When asked about other salient features of the tunnel, they said that in order to ensure round the clock power supply inside the tunnel, two 33 KV electric sub-stations have been constructed on either side of the tunnel. One station would be kept on stand-by mode and put to use in case of any snag in the second one. A large number of CCTV cameras are being installed for proper surveillance in the entire tunnel length and all would be connected to the Central Monitoring Station at Banihal. Moreover, emergency helipads have also been constructed on either side of the tunnel to meet any exigency. Even state-of-the-art communication system is being installed at different locations inside the tunnel.

In response to another question, sources said, "service road running parallel to the railway track has also been constructed inside the tunnel in order to facilitate prompt response in case of any exigency or for engineering works".

The Banihal-Qazigund section comprises 39 bridges, which include two major ones, 30 minor bridges and seven road over bridges and road under bridges. The Banihal station has already been completed in all respect