Neeraj Rohmetra
NEW DELHI, Nov 11: In a major announcement that would come as big relief for the people of country especially Jammu and Kashmir, the Railways today said that it would complete Katra-Banihal rail line, which would link Srinagar and other parts of the Kashmir valley with rest of the country, positively in the next three years.
Announcement to this effect was made by Railways Board chairman AK Mittal while addressing the Economic Editors’ Conference.
“With Supreme Court settling all five Public Interest Litigations (PILs) regarding alignment of the project, we have expedited the work on Katra-Banihal section of the Railways, which was topographically very tough alignment, and we hope to complete the work in the next three years,” Mittal announced.
Presently, the trains run up to Katra from major parts of the country while in Kashmir, the trains move from Baramulla to Banihal via Budgam-Srinagar-Anantnag-Qazigund. The only un-linked part of Katra and Banihal. Once this stretch is connected, the train will move right up to Srinagar and other parts of the Valley from entire country.
The train connectivity will not only help the people of the Kashmir valley as they would be able to travel to the country via rail service but it would also help security forces in strategically important Kashmir valley to carry their supplies and other materials without any break.
Mittal attributed major delay in construction of Katra-Banihal railway track to five PILs filed in the Apex Court regarding alignment of this project.
“However, with the Supreme Court stating that Railways is the best judge of alignment and disposing off all five PILs, we have started work on alignment. Work on Katra-Banihal section will be positively completed in the next three years,” Mittal said.
Asserting that Katra-Banihal is most hostile section in Jammu and Kashmir in view of its topography, the Railways Board chairman disclosed that 105-kilometers railway line (from Katra to Banihal) will have 90 kilometer tunnels along with bridges would cover eight to 10 kilometers. Only 10 kilometers stretch of the rail link will be on surface.
It may be mentioned here that during Atal Behari Vajpayee-led NDA Government, the work on Jammu-Srinagar rail link was expedited and it was scheduled to be completed in December 2007. However, after the exit of Vajpayee Government, the work continued to be delayed on different pretexts.
Narendra Modi had in June 2014 inaugurated Jammu-Katra railway line, thus linking the holy town and base camps of Mata Vaishno Devi ji shrine with the rail.
Meanwhile, to boost the expansion of its network, the Railways next year will invest more than Rs two lakh crore which will be 90 per cent more as compared to previous year’s investment of Rs 1.21 lakh crore.
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu informed this through a video message at the Economic Editors’ Conference here.
Prabhu was scheduled to address the Conference but couldn’t come due to preoccupation.
Speaking at the conference, Mittal said the money would be invested in the expansion of the present rail network. He said the Railways had plans to invest around Rs 8.56 lakh crore in five years, for expansion of its network which included doubling, triple lines, electrification, laying of new tracks and modernising of signaling system.
Mittal said during 2014-15, the investment was Rs 45,000 crore which was Rs 93,000 crore during 2015-16 and increased to Rs 1.21 lakh crore in 2016-17.
Next year, the investment would be more than Rs two lakh crore, he added.
He said that Railways had an agreement with LIC of India for obtaining funds to the tune of Rs 1.5 lakh crore besides bonds from markets. He informed that the Delhi-Mumbai and the Delhi-Howrah sections would see trains running at a speed of 160 km per hours and to achieve this target and the Ministry had already taken steps in this regard.
On bringing the entire Northeast region on the railway network map, Mittal said the region would be on full broad gauge by this year end and the Ministry was working on connecting all capitals of the region by 2020.
About the Dedicated Freight Corridor, Mittal informed that the DFC was languishing for the last 11 years and it gained momentum in the last two years. The Railways was targeting an average speed of 75 kmph, with maximum speed of 100 kmph and completion of the DFC would be a big game changer.
In the last two years, the Railways had finalised contracts worth Rs 35,000 crore.
To a question on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high speed rail corridor, Mittal informed that since Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on a visit to Japan, the high speed project would definitely come up for discussion.
The official also said that since Railways was the biggest environment-friendly mode of transport and taking the Clean India Mission ahead, by 2019 all coaches would be fitted with bio-toilets.
He said the Railways was also working on eliminating all un-manned level crossings in three to four years time.
Besides the chairman, those present were Member Traction AK Kapoor, Member Engineering Aditya K Mittal, Member Rolling Stock Hemant Kumar, Member Staff Pradeep Kumar, Member Traffic Mohammad Jamshed, Financial Commissioner Shahzad Shah and other officials.
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