In Jammu and Kashmir, the Indian Railways has finished building a 12.89-kilometre tunnel that it claims to be the nation’s longest escape tunnel. The tunnel, known as T49, is a portion of the renowned Udhampur Srinagar Baramulla Rail Link’s Banihal-Katra section (USBRL).
The 111-kilometer-long Banihal-Katra segment is currently under construction. Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramula Rail Link Project has an overall length of 272 kilometres. Union Minister of Railways, Ashwini Vaishnaw uploaded pictures of the escape tunnel on his Twitter.
The longest transportation tunnel (12.75 km) of India, the T49 #USBRL project made through today.#Infra4India pic.twitter.com/0uLCnEaUVS
— Ashwini Vaishnaw (@AshwiniVaishnaw) February 15, 2022
Interesting Facts About India’s Longest Escape Tunnel
Here are 6 intriguing facts about India’s longest escape tunnel in Jammu and Kashmir:
1. It has the shape of a horseshoe.
2. It links the Sumber station yard to Khari station. At an elevation of 1400.5 metres, the Sumber station yard is located at the southern end of the tunnel. A height of 1558.84 metres can be found on the northern side.
3. This is the Banihal-Katra route’s fourth tunnel.
4. It cuts through the Himalayan Ramban formation.
5. The tunnel was constructed employing the New Austrian tunnelling method (NATM).
6. It is designed for activities like rescue and rehabilitation. Cross tunnels are present every 375 metres to enable the same.
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Indian Railways Achieves A New Milestone
According to reports, the route is traversed by the Khoda and Kundan nallah distributaries of the Chenab River. Thus, constructors faced challenges while carrying out the drilling task. Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh took to his Twitter handle to post a video of the tunnel and wrote, “Another milestone achieved.” T49 is now the longest transportation tunnel in India. The breakthrough event of the tunnel took place on December 15, 2022. T49 lies parallel to the main tunnel.
VIDEO: Another milestone achieved at the USBRL #Rail project by executing the breakthrough of the longest Escape Tunnel (12.895 km) of India, between Sumber & Khari Stations on #Katra–#Banihal section. pic.twitter.com/78FJYy4Rn7
— Dr Jitendra Singh (@DrJitendraSingh) December 16, 2022
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Earlier, in October, Indian Railways achieved the breakthrough of the T-48 tunnel, which has a length of 10.18 kilometres.
Cover Image Courtesy: Unsplash and Twitter/@AshwiniVaishnaw