Qazigund-Badgam section by this year if J

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

Srinagar, July 5 (UNI) The proposed 70-km Qazigund-Badgam section of the 120-km Udhampur-Baramulla railway project would be completed during the current fiscal if the Jammu and Kashmir government provided adequate security at construction sites and removed all impediments in the acquired land, an official spokesman said today.

Similarly, he said the section from Badgam to Baramulla (about 50 km) on the Udhampur-Qazigund-Srinagar-Baramulla project would be completed by the next financial year if the construction work was allowed to be carried out smoothly.

The spokesman also said the station building here was almost complete.

The work on the 25-km Udhampur-Katra was going on in full swing, he said, adding the section has 10 km of tunneling, nine important bridges and 29 minor bridges.

This would also have the world's tallest bridge with 90 m pier height and two spans of 154 m each and longest tunnel of 3.5 km.

The spokesman said the target date for completion of this section was the current financial year.

He said the 148-km Katra-Qazigund section was the toughest section ever been constructed in Indian Railways. ''It is tougher than Konkan Railway,'' he added.

On this section, the spokesman said the Railways would be constructing a bridge across river Chenab having an arched span of more than 550 m and a total length of around 1.5 km. This would be about 390 m above the bed level of the river, he added.

''While the arched span is expected to be the third longest in the world, the bridge above the bed level height will be the highest in the world. In order to expedite the progress, various measures have been taken. On one hand survey is being done, simultaneously construction activity has also started on many fronts. The stretch between Chenab river and Banihal is through a virgin area which does not even have roads,'' he added.

The Railways would be constructing an extensive length of roads between 200-300 km to be later used by the state government.

The spokesman said this would give fillip to the development of the otherwise remote and untouched area. The terrain in the region was full of poor geology and faults. Tunneling and bridging was a challenge greater than that on the Jammu-Udhampur or Udhampur-Katra section and a matter of pride for Railway engineers, he added.

The spokesman said there were many other tunnels in this stretch ranging between 3 to 5 km. In 70 per cent of the stretch, there were tunnels in this section, balance about 14 per cent was on bridges and the rest on cutting and station yards, he added.

Most of the stations have a small length either in a tunnel or a bridge. The target for completion of this section was 2008-09.

The spokesman said the Jalandhar-Jammu Tawi doubling had been proposed to be completed by the next financial year.

On this project, 57 km have already been completed and during the current fiscal, 90 km have been targeted for completion.

The works were in various stages of progress on the entire section, he said, adding about Rs 120 crore have been provided for the project during the current financial year.

UNI AG LS ND1722

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