Baramulla-Uri Rail Link In The Offing, 50-Km Corridor Planned As Extension Of USBRL Project

The Central government has started the process of linking the border area of Uri in Kashmir Valley with the rest of the country by a broad-gauge railway line.

The 50-km Baramulla-Uri segment in Kashmir will be an extension of the under-construction Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) project and will promote growth and overcome logistical obstacles encountered by the people of Uri in north Kashmir.

Northern Railways is considering starting the Final Location Survey (FLS) for the new Baramulla-Uri line, for which the Ministry of Railways has invited tenders.

“Tenders have been issued for engineering survey work of a railway line utilising current survey techniques such as aerial survey (aerial photogrammetric survey or aerial LIDAR) and DGPS (Differential Global Positioning System) levelling and production of DEM),” said a Railway official.

USBRL Project

The 272-km Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) is ‘national project’ which aims to connect Kashmir Valley with the rest of the country by a broad-gauge railway line.

The four sections of the USBRL rail project, which is being built at a cost of Rs 27,949 crore are Udhampur-Katra, Katra-Banihal, Banihal-Qazigund, and Qazigund-Baramulla.

Construction of the first three phases of the railway project has been completed and the line is operational between Banihal - Baramulla in Kashmir Valley and Jammu-Udhampur-Katra in Jammu region.

• The 118-km Qazigund-Baramulla section was commissioned in three phases between October 2008 and October 2009.

• The section from Banihal to Quazigund involving Pir Panjal Tunnel, the longest transportation tunnel in India of total 11.215 km length was opened to the Public in June 2013.

• Similarly, the 25-km Udhampur-Katra section which is 25 km long was opened to the traffic in July 2014.

Work on the intervening 111 km. of Katra-Banihal section is going on and this section is the most challenging portion for construction due to its geology and extensive riverine system with deep gorges.

With 87 per cent of the total length (97 km out of 111 km) in tunnels, this section presents an engineering challenge in the highly rugged and mountainous terrain with one of the most difficult and complex Himalayan geology.

The Katra-Banihal line is expected to be operationalised by January 2024.

Significance

The Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla-Rail Link (USBRL) project is perhaps the most important and also the most challenging project taken up by the Indian Railways since Independence.

The strategic importance of the project to the State of Jammu and Kashmir and to the nation as a whole cannot be overstated, and this has been recognised as such by no less than the Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, when he declared this to be a project of ‘National Importance’ in 2002.

This project is expected to bring about socio-economic development of the State of Jammu and Kashmir through enhanced connectivity within the region and with rest of the country.

The project was envisaged to provide an efficient all weather transportation channel that could function in adverse weather conditions and reduce the travel time to various destinations in and outside the valley considerably.

The project is very challenging, considering that the terrain is difficult and hostile, the weather conditions are tough, the security situation in the Valley is sensitive and the logistics support is not really the best. Also, this is the first time that the Indian Railways has taken up the construction of an entirely new line in an area which has not been mapped properly, does not have approach roads and where it would be difficult to transport the required construction material, tracks and other equipment.