Indian Railways recently achieved another milestone as it completed another tunnel linking in Ramban district of Jammu and Kashmir. The Northern Railway zone is behind this ongoing project in the Bankot area located near Banihal. With the latest breakthrough, IRCON International Limited has completed most of the excavation work of railway tunnels between Banihal and Khari Sectors.
The work on the 110 km wide rail line between Katra and Banihal is progressing at a steady pace and is likely to be completed in the next two years. The new line is part of the 272-km-long Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) project that will not only connect the Valley with the rest of the country but also provide an alternate surface link to the Union Territory.
“The nearly two-km-long tunnel project at Bankot is being built in two halves at a cost of Rs 300 crore,” the report quoted an official as saying. Meanwhile, Additional Deputy Commissioner, Ramban, Harbans Lal Sharma, who participated in the success event, said that Indian Railways has crossed another challenging milestone between Banihal and Khari sectors of Katra-Banihal railway link on the occasion of World Tunnel Day. have done it. He also mentioned that train services from Kashmir to the rest of the country are expected to start in the next two years and work is going on at a diligent pace in the region to achieve the deadline.
The 272-km-long railway project is being built at a cost of Rs 28,000 crore, but the railway ministry’s focus is on completing the strategic Katra-Banihal line, which has several tunnels.