Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister for Railways and Commerce & Industry and Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution reviewed the progress of Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail link Project (USBRL) through Video conferencing today. Chairman & CEO, Railway Board along with senior officials of Railways.

Hon’ble MR appreciated that despite the current Covid situation appreciable work has been done by USBRL Project in April and May 2021.

He further instructed to put in extra efforts in coming months to make up for the loss of time due to Covid 2nd wave.

Hon’ble MR was apprised that the budget of USBRL for year 2021-22 is Rs. 4200 Cr. Honble MR instructed that there would not be any constraints of budget to this project.

About the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail link Project (USBRL)

❖   Project background:

Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail link Project (USBRL) having length of 272 Km long Railway Line from Udhampur to Baramulla joining the Kashmir valley with rest of the country and has been declared as National Project in 2002. Out of 272 Km of USBRL Project, work has been completed on 161 Km and commissioned. Status of work sub-divided into three legs is as under:

i.      Udhampur - Katra -25km  (commissioned in July 2014)

ii.     Quazigund - Baramulla – 118km (commissioned in Oct., 2009)

iii.   Banihal - Quazigund – 18km  (commissioned in June 2013)

iv.   Katra to Banihal- 111km in progress (Target 2022-23)

❖Katra- Banihal Section of USBRL Project

The work on intervening stretch of Katra-Banihal section (111 km) is in progress and this section predominantly involves tunnelling i.e. 97 Km out of 111 Km (i.e. 87%) of length of Katra-Banihal section is in tunnels and maximum length of tunnel T-49 is 12.75 Km.

There are 27 nos. of Main tunnel having length of 97.6 Km and 8 nos. of Escape tunnel having length of 66.4 km, with cumulative length of  about 164 Km of tunneling are being constructed in Katra- Banihal section. At present 140.81 Km of tunnelling i.e. 84.2 Km (20 nos.) out of 97.6 Km (27nos.) of Main tunnel and 56.61 Km (3 nos.) out of 66.4 Km (8 nos.)  have been completed).

There are 37nos. of Bridges (combined length of 7 Km) and includes 26 nos. major bridges and 11 nos. minor bridges. At present 13 nos. of major bridges and 10 nos. minor bridges have been completed and work on all fronts are in progress .  These bridges include the iconic Chenab Bridge (Overall length 1315 m, Arch span of 467 m and height of 359 m above river bed) which will be the highest railway bridge in the world. Arch Launching of Chenab bridge was completed on 05.042021. Indian railway’s first cable-stayed bridge is also being constructed on AnjiKhad and 130 m of Main Pylon out of 193m have been cast and an ancillary viaduct portion of Anji Bridge has been completed. Launching of Other Major bridges 39 & 43 is in progress and 310m and 260m of launching have been completed respectively.

❖   Major Achievement during April 21 & May21

●         Chenab Bridge- Arch closure of world highest Railway Bridge was successfully carried out in April. Launching of 58 MT in April 2021 and 163 MT in May 2021 has been achieved. Cumulative Launching achieved is 10,619 MT. However due to increased covid cases, the area around kauri end of this bridge has recently been declared as a micro containment zone imposing certain restrictions.

●         Anji Bridge –Main Pylon concreting: 4m lift in April 2021 and 4m lift May 2021 (upto 24st). Total progress of Main Pylon is 130m completed out of 193m. Cumulative assembly of segments (55m) and launching of 30m has been achieved.

●         At Br. 39 in Reasi area, launching of 32m length done in April 21 and 15m in May 2021 (upto 24stError! Filename not specified..

●         Bridge No. 43 in Bakkal (Reasi) area, launching of 42.5m length in April 2020 and  9m in May 2021 (upto 21st).

●          1.46Km Tunnel Mining (MT+ET) done in April 2021and 0.78Km in May 21 (upto 24st)

Major Achievement of 2020-21

●      Total Tunnel Mining of 14.97Km (MT +ET) done in Year 2020-21.

●      Breakthrough of Tunnel T2 (Main tunnel) having a length of 5093m length achieved on 3rd Aug.’2021.

●      Break Through of Tunnel No T-74R (Main Tunnel) having length of 8.6 KM achieved on 03.10.2020, which is 2nd longest tunnel constructed on USBRL Project after PirPanjal Tunnel (11.2 Km).

●      Break Through of Tunnel No T-74R (Escape Tunnel) having length of 7.41 KM achieved on 05.12.2020.

●      Bridge No. 88, (1x45.7m) was completed in Oct.’2020.

●      Bridge No. 138  3x 30.5 m, has been completed in the month of Nov.’20.

●      Bridge No. 59, (1x30.5 + 1x45.7 + 1x30.5m) has been completed in March’2021

●      Total Bridge Fabrication of 15,480 MT was achieved during this financial year, which is the record highest fabrication achieved so far in any financial year.

●      Total Bridge Launching/Erection of Superstructure of 15,520 MT  achieved during FY 2020-21, which is record highest launching so far in any financial year

❖    Tender Position: Since Feb.’21, KRCL & IRCON have finalised Rs. 580 Cr and Rs. 32.84 Cr of Tenders respectively. Moreover, the tenders worth Rs. 915 Cr and Rs.234 Cr have been invited by IRCON  & KRCL respectively. Hon’ble MR was apprised that a balance tender of Rs 435 Cr is awaited for issue of NIT in June 21, which shall be expedited to adhere to the set target of the project.

❖    Electrification of Banihal- Baramulla section:

The 136 km railway line from Banihal to Baramulla has already been commissioned and its electrification work has also been sanctioned. All tenders have been awarded and S&T plans have also been approved and work is under progress. The target for completion of Railway Electrification works in Banihal-Baramulla section is March-2022.

Completion date of the project is April-2023.

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DK/MKV

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