Key Katra-Reasi section gets green flag

After successful trial runs of passenger and freight trains, the commissioner of railway safety, northern circle, Dinesh Chand Deshwal, has given the go-ahead to commission the newly constructed 17-km Katra-Reasi rail track.

- Ravi Krishnan Khajuria

JAMMU:

The Katra-Reasi section was the toughest in the 272-km Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) broad-gauge project.

"The consent of the CRS (in a seven-page authorisation letter) clears the way for the commissioning of the Katra-Reasi rail section. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to inaugurate the Vande Bharat Express from Katra to Kashmir around January 20," a senior railway official said. The date of the inauguration is yet to be finalised.

On January 4, the chief administrative officer of the USBRL project, Sandeep Gupta, conducted the first trial run of the electric train from Katra to Banihal. This was followed by an inspection by Deshwal and a team of railway officials on January 7 and 8. Besides inspecting the tunnels and bridges on the stretch, including the country's first cable-stayed rail bridge on the Anji river, a speed trial was conducted on the 111-km Katra to Banihal track.

Longest tunnel and tallest bridge The section includes 27 tunnels and 37 bridges. The longest rail tunnel in the country, T-49, which is 12.75km long, falls in this section.

Work on the USBRL project started in 2005-06. While the 118-km Qazigund-Baramulla section in Kashmir was inaugurated in October 2009, the 18-km Banihal-Qazigund and 25-km Udhampur-Katra sections were commissioned in June 2013 and July 2014, respectively.