Longest railway tunnel unveiled in IHK

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Longest railway tunnel unveiled in IHK

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The Northern Railways on Friday opened longest railway tunnel in occupied Kashmir.

14 October,2011 07:45 pm

The tunnel is part of the ambitious Udhampur - Srinagar - Baramulla rail link project of Northern Railways. At 10.96km long, the Pir Panjal Railway Tunnel is Indias longest and Asias 2nd longest tunnel, aimed at reducing the travel distance between Quazigund and Banihal to only 11 km and providing a hassle-free travel up to Baramualla.The 10.96 KM tunnel, which is aligned straight from north to south, is 100 percent water-proof and is also equipped with fire fighting system throughout its entire length. According to project manager Hindustan Construction Corporation S Yala, the construction of the tunnel started in November 2005 and was complete in 2011. The total cost of the tunnel was Rs 3.9 billion.The train would take 6.6 minutes to travel this distance from Banihal in south side to Qazigund in north side of the mountain and thus would take passenger from Jammu region in to Kashmir region just six minutes.The fascinating fact about the tunnel excavation is that the total excavated quantity was equal to one mountain, says Vikram Singh Tanwar, PRO HCC. He said, 1500 workers, employed to excavate the tunnel piercing the Pir Panjal Mountain would meet one another when they dig out last spade of the muck tomorrow.Interestingly, this railway tunnel is below Jawahar tunnel- meant for vehicular traffic only- which usually gets blocked during winters owing to heavy snowfall in the region.