Jammu-Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (JUSBRL) Project

[World8115]

This article gives a detailed report of the incident:

Kashmir train runs 34 kms without driver

Source

A train traveled 34 kilometres without a driver in Kashmir on Saturday night, prompting authorities to suspended five railway officials and order inquiry in the matter.

Sources in Northern Railways told Greater Kashmir that the train, stationed at Qazigund, started moving towards Islamabad (Anantnag) without a driver or passengers on board at 1:35 AM.

They said sudden chugging of the train triggered panic among the railway officials and the security personnel deployed for the protection of the stations.

“We alerted our staff at all the 15 stations after it moved,” they said, adding that adequate measures were taken on the entire 119-kilometer track from Baramulla to Qazigund to halt it.

After covering a distance of 34 kilometres and traveling via stations Panzagam, Bijbehara, Islamabad (Anantnag) and Sadura, the train came to the abrupt halt near Awantipora station due to a steep gradient.

While embarrassed Railway authorities are playing down the incident, insiders say it was negligence on their part.

When contacted, the Divisional Railway Manager (Ferozpur Division), Vishesh Choubhy, said the train started due to rolling down.

“We have suspended five employees and have also ordered an inquiry into the matter,” he said.

He said it will be probed how the train moved for such a long distance without a driver.

When contacted, Senior Superintendent of Railways Showkat Ahmed Malik said they have lodged an FIR in the incident.

[Rakeshmblore]

Thanks to all..

Copyright to Shashank

[anujkb]

I dont know why everyone in the valley calls ANT as Islamabad. sometimes people get confused when someone says Srinagar-Islamabad railway

anyways this incidence calls for the need of catch siding at the Katra-Qazigund section, just as the British had built it at bhore ghats and thull ghats about 150 yrs ago.

Infact instead of longer, straight routes the section should have to be desinged for loops and double loops, and maybe even reversals, which would have saved many time and money....

[dr. yaser]

Historically, anantnag name was given by the dogra rulers of kashmir to a town previously known as 'islamabad'. Traditionally the name is islamabad mostly pronounced as 'islambad' in kashmiri and 'islamabad' or mostly anantnag in urdu because urdu is new to kashmir as a language and also an official language so it mostly goes with the new official anantnag name.
The dogra rulers were interested in linking valley to rest of northern indian rail network but the budget and technical difficulties made it look impossible at that time. Anyways now as train has arrived in kashmir although by 'road' it will soon see a ludhiana loco bringing a long rake of coaches with attitude!
I m very eager to know why does our DMU stops while negotiating a curve just approaching qazigund station (the curve is the same as in the pic 2 or 3 pages back near qazigund station), it stops and moves at a pace of around 5 to 10kmph and then arrives at QZD and also while moving towards SINA it again slows rather stops and then negotiates the curve. May be there is some alignment problem there as it is around 30 m from ground level at that point and also a bridge follows also the soil quality or the soil must have settled and pulled the track a bit down .
Passengers get anxious when the train tilts by around 20degrees.

[Rakeshmblore]

Yaser could you plz post some pics of Baramulla and other stations of the valley?..

[anujkb]

Originally Posted by dr. yaser

The dogra rulers were interested in linking valley to rest of northern indian rail network but the budget and technical difficulties made it look impossible at that time. Anyways now as train has arrived in kashmir although by 'road' it will soon see a ludhiana loco bringing a long rake of coaches with attitude!

most prolly the old grunting LDH locos wont be used. mostly a WDP4B or WDP4D from TKD (tuglaqabad) would take charge. it will haul many trains like shalimar, uttar sk, kashmir raj, kashmir mail, sdah-jat-sina express, etc.. i.e. long length trains.

Originally Posted by dr. yaser

I m very eager to know why does our DMU stops while negotiating a curve just approaching qazigund station (the curve is the same as in the pic 2 or 3 pages back near qazigund station), it stops and moves at a pace of around 5 to 10kmph and then arrives at QZD and also while moving towards SINA it again slows rather stops and then negotiates the curve. May be there is some alignment problem there as it is around 30 m from ground level at that point and also a bridge follows also the soil quality or the soil must have settled and pulled the track a bit down .
Passengers get anxious when the train tilts by around 20degrees.

when alignment is new some settlement is bound to happen for 5-6 years. 100% compaction is never possible in any soil. the settlement occuring becomes noticeable at earlier stages. later the settlement is hardly of few mm per month so barely doesnt matter. something like- settlement halves every month,, so at the end of some 2 years it would be barely 0.1% of what it settled at earlier years.

Same problem is also noticed in newly gauge-converted ratangarh-rewari line in rajasthan and similar at sharp curves where superelevation (tilting to 1 side) is provided.

in order to avoid too rapid impact loads, the speed restriction is kept and sometimes mandatory halt is kept.

[anujkb]

30 m high embankment is very tough to imagine, i as civil engineer can imagine the amount of settlement it goes. this must be checked during the testing when entire section was made fit for 100 kmph.

ive seen a video where the DMU made 110 kmph (some news channel video) before flagging off the train.

the 60kg/m sleepers indicate the speed can be later increased to 160 kmph on flatter sections

[dr. yaser]

The embankment virtually is around 20-30 m as it corresponds to a bridge of same height, and i think it is till now the highest in valley. That bridge flies over a village and it seems as if we are viewing the houses of that particular village from satellite imagery.
However the leading actors of our usbrl project are undoubtedly- the T80, sangaldhan tunnel, the chenab bridge and anji bridge rest are supporting casts and junior actors but each one as important as the other.
I think chenab and anji bridges will meet the 2015 deadline may be 1 year earlier but sangaldan will certainly drag the project to the last hour of 2017 deadline.

I recently met a taxi driver who worked for IRCON for a month, he said he went into T80 from QZD side about 4 kms and said it is so much wide that he could turn his sumo without any difficulty and made a round circle inside T80. I heard it will be only single track with a 3 m wide emergency road parallel to the track but some say it will be two track. As winters have passed and spring has bloomed the tracklaying of the 6 odd kms from QZD to T80 'may' start in 'may'..

[anujkb]

Originally Posted by dr. yaser

The embankment virtually is around 20-30 m as it corresponds to a bridge of same height, and i think it is till now the highest in valley. That bridge flies over a village and it seems as if we are viewing the houses of that particular village from satellite imagery.
However the leading actors of our usbrl project are undoubtedly- the T80, sangaldhan tunnel, the chenab bridge and anji bridge rest are supporting casts and junior actors but each one as important as the other.
I think chenab and anji bridges will meet the 2015 deadline may be 1 year earlier but sangaldan will certainly drag the project to the last hour of 2017 deadline.

I recently met a taxi driver who worked for IRCON for a month, he said he went into T80 from QZD side about 4 kms and said it is so much wide that he could turn his sumo without any difficulty and made a round circle inside T80. I heard it will be only single track with a 3 m wide emergency road parallel to the track but some say it will be two track. As winters have passed and spring has bloomed the tracklaying of the 6 odd kms from QZD to T80 'may' start in 'may'..

Yes no problem with 30 m high embkment- theres a 42 m high embankment also u/c somewhere near sangaldhan- dharamkund side. with 2:1 slopes at each side, itll cover a whooping around 150 metres wide land there! perhaps the best way to dump the debris out of 100 km of tunnels

T80 will be as of now a single line tunnel. they may later double it. Even after doubling there would b space for a truck to travel parallel. but all this traffic (on emergency road) will have to stop when a train passes. Actually larger tunnels means more ventilation problems. ventilation is not a problem in smaller tunnels like KR ones, smoke is removed with piston effect.

[dr. yaser]

What is the status of Reasi railway station???? I saw a pic last year, active construction on levelled ground was going on, i dont knw the current position but as much as i knw most tunnels between katra and reasi are nearing completion, dont knw about bridges.. It might get connected to katra within 3 years. The mighty chenab bridge follows this station and it is at a good amount of height and looks like an open window on that particular mountain.

[anujkb]

land is acquired. rock cutting/filling is done. now approach road is also done. levelling is also done. between katra and reasi, T1 is half-done, T2 very long one is in sad state, T3 is almost done, then comes reasi stn, t4a and t4. after t4 is anjikhad. T5 is another long one of some 4.5 km, no idea how much its done. T6 is being done by rithwik constrn, followed by salal-A station. then immediately comes small tunnel T7 nearing completion; and then immediately chenab bridge; then immediately Salal-B. then follows a series of tunnels till perhaps T36 or so.. to dharamkund. T38 onwards are curved tunnels most are nearing completion. one of them is done.

[World8115]

Locals demand rail service to be resumed in Baramulla

Source

Locals in Baramulla region of Kashmir valley demanded rail services to be resumed after it was suspended for months during last year's unrest in the region.

Bashir Ahmad Bhatt, Deputy Commissioner of Baramulla district, said the concerned authorities are in the process of beginning the rail services.

"In the last turmoil the station and its services were disrupted and was later resumed as well. The train comes till Rinji area and we are trying to take it further till Sopore and Baramulla. There were damages to the railway track and we had gone to the site and have begun the restoration work and it will take some time," he said.

The train services between Budgam and Qazigund districts were restored in the first phase in December 2010.

"I want to ask the authorities that the station that was burnt down, why aren't they restoring it? Because of this we are facing a lot of trouble. So, I request the authority to restore the station in Amargarh at the earliest, may be within a week so that people can use the facility again," said Ghulam Hassan, a local.

Services were suspended on July 31, 2010 after mobs torched railway stations and uprooted tracks at several places in the restive region.

The railway station at Sopore was the worst affected, as heavy machines worth 200 million rupees were set ablaze.

[reshapco]

Ab aaya Uuth Pahaad ke niche.

[dr. yaser]

A news article reported that railways may move divisional railway manager (DRM) office from ferozepur to valley probably to budgam to free the burden of ferozepur as it handles J&K, punjab, himachal and is overburdened.
The jammu railway employees are demanding to set up DRM office at jammu tawi but northern railways may shift the office to budgam as state has witnessed rail development beyond jammu tawi in past few years and many more projects might come along.
I dont technically understand where DRM should be established but railway certainly might have thought something before taking such step.

[Bombay2Calcutta]

Baramulla-Qazigund train service to resume shortly
Tribune News Service
Srinagar, May 19
The railway authorities have completed the repair work on the Hamra-Sopore railway line and the train service between Baramulla and Qazigund is going to resume shortly.

The Baramulla-Anantnag rail service was suspended following the ransacking of railway tracks and signal systems and looting and arson at the Sopore and Budgam railway stations by stone throwers during the unrest last year.

“The reconstruction work of the railway line was taken up and the track up to Mazhama was made operational on February 1, up to Pattan on February 15, and up to Hamrae on March 9 this year. The repair of tracks up to Baramulla have also been completed with appropriate security arrangements in place, due to which the train service is likely to resume up to Baramulla shortly, with Sopore as a halt station,” said IGP, railways, Navin Agarwal.

Meanwhile, DGP Kuldeep Khoda, who laid the foundation stone of the office of the SSP, Railways, while speaking to reporters, said, “Additional police forces and mobile patrols have been deployed to secure railway lines in the Valley after the rail infrastructure suffered a heavy damage during the unrest last year. There will be a police station and a police post on every station and we have deployed mobile patrols along the tracks”.

He said the security of the railways properties was jointly being handled by the state police and the CRPF.

Last year the non-local Railway employees had fled the Valley fearing threat to their lives. “The employees have returned and we are now providing them all possible security,” the IGP, Railways, said.

“A road map with coordinated security in place was drawn up for reconstruction and restoration in a phased manner,” he added.

[Bombay2Calcutta]

ht
Additional security for rail lines in Kashmir Valley

Additional police forces and mobile patrols have been deployed to secure the rail lines in Kashmir Valley after the rail infrastructure suffered heavy damages during summer protests last year. "On every railway station we have presence. There will be a police station and police post there and we hav e deployed mobile patrols along the tracks," Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police Kuldeep Khoda told reporters in Srinagar on Thursday.

He said the security is being jointly handled by the state police and CRPF.

Rail services in the Valley were suspended in July last year when protestors went on the rampage and burnt down a railway station in north Kashmir's Sopore town and damaged the railway yard in central Kashmir's Budgam district.

Railway tracks and signal systems were also damaged during the summer protests last year bringing to a halt rail traffic in the Valley.

The non-local Railway employees also fled the Valley during the peak of the unrest.

The service was resumed in December 2010 from Budgam district to Qazigund station in south Kashmir, and early this year after the repair work was completed and security beefed up, the train chugged along the track in north Kashmir up to Hamre station.

"A roadmap with coordinated security in place was drawn up for reconstruction and restoration in a phased manner," Inspector General of Police, Railways, Navin Agarwal said.

He said the repair work of tracks has been completed up to Baramulla with proper security arrangements and service is likely to be resumed up to the last stop in north Kashmir with a halt station at Sopore.

Rail services in Kashmir Valley were inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chairperson Sonia Gandhi in 2008.

[Rakeshmblore]

India's longest tunnel will be ready by 2012

QAZIGUND: The rail link between Kashmir valley and the rest of the country will be completed by December 2012 once India's longest tunnel at 11 km — connecting Qazigund with Banihal — is constructed within a year.

The tunnel, one of the world's largest and deepest, will pierce through the Pir Panjal range below snowline, which stands like a wall between the Valley and Jammu.

The engineering marvel, named T80, is strategically important for the country since the only road link via the Jawahar Tunnel, which connects both the regions in the border state, is often blocked due to heavy snowfall.

"The tunnel will provide all-weather connectivity between the two regions," said Chahatey Ram, chief administrative officer of Northern Railway. "We are hopeful that Banihal-Qazigund rail link will be commissioned by December 2012," he added.

Hitesh Khanna, director (works) of IRCON, which is executing the project, said of the 11-km stretch, work has been completed in 10.40km. The distance between Banihal and Qazigund will be reduced to only 16km once the tunnel becomes operational, said R V Anand of IRCON.

Railways is also building an eight-feet wide service road along the T80 for any exigency.

The Banihal-Qazigund project is part of the Katra-Qazigund (129 km) venture, passing through hostile terrain of young Himalayas that are routinely posing geological surprises to the engineers. The inhospitable terrain has forced IRCON to construct 67.5km of access road to reach the project site, which has also helped in providing connectivity to around 35 villages.

Railways is using state-of-the-art Austrian tunnelling method to construct T80 that involves integration of surrounding soil formations into a ring-like support structure.

In 2002, then NDA government had announced a 345-km Jammu-Udhampur-Katra-Qazigund-Baramulla railway line, the biggest mountain rail project since the Independence.

The 53-km Jammu-Udhampur section was opened to the public in 2005, and the 119-km Qazigund-Baramulla route has been operational since 2009.

At present, the 6.5km Karbude tunnel of the Konkan Railway is the longest tunnel in India.

[anujkb]

this tunnel itself is crucial in linking kashmir with india. Whatever divide that remains between the valley and rest of india is nothing but the pir panjal. Once this is done, it is as good as linking kashmir to rest f india. from 2013-2017, the situation would be- catch the evening DMU to banihal, then Catch a taxi from banihal (400 rs) to katra and catch the overnight train to delhi. which would still make the journey around 16 hours (as compared to 24 hrs now).

About the villages near reasi-dharamkund section, I heard they used to sell their products at ramban and it used to take them 3 days to take them on mules. Now in 3 days they can sell the products in saudi also :P

[dr. yaser]

Absolutely true!! a train connection to rest of india i.e delhi, mumbai, kolkata, chennai or guwahati would mean a direct geographical physical emotional and psychological link. This rail project is strategically very important as the checking and other security formalities at jawahar tunnel makes a kashmiri feel as if he is going from one country to another thats the amount of psychological impact of jawahar tunnel considered the foodpipe of valley, though the airtravel is also a direct link but mostly for the upper class but average class and below are still confined to valley or occassional trips outside.

Railways have certainly scrapped the charil station now named banihal and its just outside the south portal of t80.
Distance between qazigund and banihal by road is around 36 kms now reduced to 16 kms only, that means 10 mins in DMU and to srinagar around 1hr 30mins as compared to 3 to 4 hours by road plus good amount of motion sickness.
The next phase would be called banihal sangaldhan and from jammu side katra reasi , reasi sangaldhan is last of all.

[anujkb]

Originally Posted by dr. yaser

Absolutely true!! a train connection to rest of india i.e delhi, mumbai, kolkata, chennai or guwahati would mean a direct geographical physical emotional and psychological link. This rail project is strategically very important as the checking and other security formalities at jawahar tunnel makes a kashmiri feel as if he is going from one country to another thats the amount of psychological impact of jawahar tunnel considered the foodpipe of valley, though the airtravel is also a direct link but mostly for the upper class but average class and below are still confined to valley or occassional trips outside.

Railways have certainly scrapped the charil station now named banihal and its just outside the south portal of t80.
Distance between qazigund and banihal by road is around 36 kms now reduced to 16 kms only, that means 10 mins in DMU and to srinagar around 1hr 30mins as compared to 3 to 4 hours by road plus good amount of motion sickness.
The next phase would be called banihal sangaldhan and from jammu side katra reasi , reasi sangaldhan is last of all.

max permissible speeed in Pirpanjal tunnel is just 40kmph. See some of my previous posts.

Just outside T80 is charil station only i think, Banihal is further south, between T77 and T 78, and a large viaduct also lies between banihal and charil.

What is of importance is Srinagar-delhi connectivity. Srinagar rajdhani will reach SINA at 10.20 am, and leave from SINA at around 3.15 pm; and Uttar SK at around 1.30 pm to baramulla, and leave immediately within 45 mins of halt at baramulla....
But even if this section is connected, itll have low speeds, one cant expect an average of >60kmph here, for any train. An average of 40kmph would also be decent. itll be similar to linking of the northeast to restof india. In northeast, other than the rajdhani, there is no superfast plying on the section. something surprising. I hope this doesnt happen here...