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Indian Railways’ project in Kasmir is on fast track! Another milestone has been achieved by the Northern Railway zone with one more tunnel in the Bankot area located near Banihal in Ramban, Jammu and Kashmir connected after a breakthrough. With this breakthrough, IRCON International Limited has completed most of the excavation work of railway tunnels between Banihal and the Khari sector, according to officials quoted in a PTI report. The work is underway on the Kashmir railway project in a 110 kilometres long rail line between Katra and Banihal and it is likely to be completed within the next two years. A part of the 272-km Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail line, the project aims to provide an alternative surface link between Kashmir and the rest of the country.


According to an official, the approx. 2-km-long tunnel project in Bankot is being developed at a cost of Rs 300 crore in two parts. Additional Deputy Commissioner, Ramban, Harbans Lal Sharma said in the next two years, travelling by train from Kashmir to Kanyakumari is expected to start and the work is in full swing in Ramban to achieve the deadline. The 53-kilometre-long railway line’s 96% passes through underground tunnels and land measuring over 11,000 kanal (an area of 550 hectares) has been handed over to the national transporter, Sharma further said.

According to the MD of Beigh Construction Company, Imran Beig, for the first time, a road-header machine is being used in the excavation of railway tunnels in the Kashmir rail line project. In tunnel excavation, the load-header machine is being utilized and thanks to the machine, there is no need for conducting blasts inside the rail tunnels, which sometimes damage the nearby residential houses coming along the tunnels, the MD further said. The Beigh Construction Company has been given a one-year deadline to complete tunnel number 77, he said. The MD is hopeful that the company will complete the project within the deadline.