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A railway line building bridges between hearts
Jammu, Mar 28: The rail line being laid from Jammu to Baramulla to connect the Kashmir Valley with the rest of the country will link hearts more than the two tracts of land.
Jammu, Mar 28: The rail line being laid from Jammu to Baramulla
to connect the Kashmir Valley with the rest of the country will link
hearts more than the two tracts of land.
Firm with this belief, the dedicated men of the northern railway are putting their heart and soul in completing the ambitious national project in one of the country's most difficult, rugged terrains. “The socio-economic impact of the railway link between Kashmir and the rest of the country will be tremendous and multidimensional,'' say northern railway general manager RR Jaruhar and chief administrative officer of the project, Rakesh Chopra.
There is a great curiosity and enthusiasm among the people of Kashmir about the project which is going to change their economy, thinking and outlook by boosting commerce, industrial development and increasing their interaction with people in other parts of the country, they said.
''If this happens and it will I will have the satisfaction of having contributed my bit to not just building railway bridges but bridges between hearts of the people,'' said Chopra.
Shops and restaurants are already coming up on the roads running along the railway line, as people who have been compensated for their land are investing the compensation amount in small business which is going to bring them more money than their land lying useless, said Jaruhar.
The main produce of the state like fresh fruits and flowers which start deteriorating early will be transported to better paying markets without much loss of time. The trains to operate on the line will have special coaches with managed temperature to preserve the freshness of flowers and fruits, said Jaruhar.
So strategic importance apart, the rail line is going to play a significant role in removing poverty from Kashmir, thus attracting Kashmiri youth to constructive activities, he said.
The railway line will keep the valley linked with the country throughout the year. Otherwise roads links are snapped for about at least 15 days in a year following heavy snowfall, said chief engineer of the project BD Garg.
The highest rail bridge has been constructed at a height of 1750, ten metres below the snowline, he said.
Pointing out to the construction work in progress on the Jammu-Udhampur railway line under first phase of the national project at a village near Udhampur, they said this was the most challenging task of their career.
The 340-km long Jammu-Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla railway line is to be completed in four phases by 2007. The first phase--Jammu-Udhampur line is nearing completion will be open to passenger traffic sometime after mid April.
However, on April 12, a train carrying railway goods for the project will run on the line, said Jaruhar.
The work on the line which was to be open for passenger traffic was delayed about 20 days as the 77 metre high and 102 metre long line on the Gambhir River could not be completed.
The bridge, linking Jammu with Udhampur is a technical marvel and the northern railway engineers are using the latest techniques in the world to build it, he added.
This is the country's most ambitious and technically advanced railway project after the Konkan railway.
In fact Jaruhar said the two railways cannot be compared. The Konkan railway had its own difficulties and this one has its own.
The 53-km long Jammu-Udhampur railway line, being constructed in seismically active Shivalik Himalayas, consists of 20 per cent tunnels and ten per cent bridges.
The Udhampur-Qazigund railway line, falling in the second phase of the national project, consists of 40 per cent tunnels. The work is progressing fast and will be completed on schedule in March 2005.
The 142 km-long Katra-Qazigund railway line lies in the most difficult terrain. It has an eleven-and-a-half km long tunnel, which would be the longest tunnel in the country. It is at Qazigund in the Pir Panjal ranges that the railway line enters the valley.
It passes through area with sparse population and no facilities of water and electricity.
The 120 km-long Qazigund-Baramulla line has no tunnels but requires several bridges on the Jhelum River and other canals.
The Jammu-Baramulla project launched in the 1980s was declared a national project in 1996.
The railway line will keep the valley linked with the country throughout the year, he said.
The security of railway line will be the combined responsibility of the railway protection force, the Jammu and Kashmir police and the government railway police, said IG, security of the project, Sudhir Awasthi.
In reply to a question about terrorist threat, he said the threat perception in this case was the same as in the case of rest of the state.
Replying to another question he said at present, there was no proposal to hand over the security of the railway line to the army.
Jaruhar said they were building roads along with the railway line to transport supplies for the project and they had proposed to the state government to take over these roads for further development after the rail line was completed.
Bureau Report
Firm with this belief, the dedicated men of the northern railway are putting their heart and soul in completing the ambitious national project in one of the country's most difficult, rugged terrains. “The socio-economic impact of the railway link between Kashmir and the rest of the country will be tremendous and multidimensional,'' say northern railway general manager RR Jaruhar and chief administrative officer of the project, Rakesh Chopra.
There is a great curiosity and enthusiasm among the people of Kashmir about the project which is going to change their economy, thinking and outlook by boosting commerce, industrial development and increasing their interaction with people in other parts of the country, they said.
''If this happens and it will I will have the satisfaction of having contributed my bit to not just building railway bridges but bridges between hearts of the people,'' said Chopra.
Shops and restaurants are already coming up on the roads running along the railway line, as people who have been compensated for their land are investing the compensation amount in small business which is going to bring them more money than their land lying useless, said Jaruhar.
The main produce of the state like fresh fruits and flowers which start deteriorating early will be transported to better paying markets without much loss of time. The trains to operate on the line will have special coaches with managed temperature to preserve the freshness of flowers and fruits, said Jaruhar.
So strategic importance apart, the rail line is going to play a significant role in removing poverty from Kashmir, thus attracting Kashmiri youth to constructive activities, he said.
The railway line will keep the valley linked with the country throughout the year. Otherwise roads links are snapped for about at least 15 days in a year following heavy snowfall, said chief engineer of the project BD Garg.
The highest rail bridge has been constructed at a height of 1750, ten metres below the snowline, he said.
Pointing out to the construction work in progress on the Jammu-Udhampur railway line under first phase of the national project at a village near Udhampur, they said this was the most challenging task of their career.
The 340-km long Jammu-Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla railway line is to be completed in four phases by 2007. The first phase--Jammu-Udhampur line is nearing completion will be open to passenger traffic sometime after mid April.
However, on April 12, a train carrying railway goods for the project will run on the line, said Jaruhar.
The work on the line which was to be open for passenger traffic was delayed about 20 days as the 77 metre high and 102 metre long line on the Gambhir River could not be completed.
The bridge, linking Jammu with Udhampur is a technical marvel and the northern railway engineers are using the latest techniques in the world to build it, he added.
This is the country's most ambitious and technically advanced railway project after the Konkan railway.
In fact Jaruhar said the two railways cannot be compared. The Konkan railway had its own difficulties and this one has its own.
The 53-km long Jammu-Udhampur railway line, being constructed in seismically active Shivalik Himalayas, consists of 20 per cent tunnels and ten per cent bridges.
The Udhampur-Qazigund railway line, falling in the second phase of the national project, consists of 40 per cent tunnels. The work is progressing fast and will be completed on schedule in March 2005.
The 142 km-long Katra-Qazigund railway line lies in the most difficult terrain. It has an eleven-and-a-half km long tunnel, which would be the longest tunnel in the country. It is at Qazigund in the Pir Panjal ranges that the railway line enters the valley.
It passes through area with sparse population and no facilities of water and electricity.
The 120 km-long Qazigund-Baramulla line has no tunnels but requires several bridges on the Jhelum River and other canals.
The Jammu-Baramulla project launched in the 1980s was declared a national project in 1996.
The railway line will keep the valley linked with the country throughout the year, he said.
The security of railway line will be the combined responsibility of the railway protection force, the Jammu and Kashmir police and the government railway police, said IG, security of the project, Sudhir Awasthi.
In reply to a question about terrorist threat, he said the threat perception in this case was the same as in the case of rest of the state.
Replying to another question he said at present, there was no proposal to hand over the security of the railway line to the army.
Jaruhar said they were building roads along with the railway line to transport supplies for the project and they had proposed to the state government to take over these roads for further development after the rail line was completed.
Bureau Report