Banihal-Katra rail link: India's longest escape tunnel completed

India’s longest escape tunnel, which is 12.89 km long constructed on the 111km under-construction Banihal-Katra railway line in Jammu and Kashmir was completed by the Indian Railways. The longest tunnel is part of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Railway Line (USBRL) project.

This is the fourth tunnel on the Banihal-Katra route following the 12.75 km tunnel T-49, the longest tunnel of the Indian Railways, which was completed in January this year.

The escape tunnel has been constructed to facilitate rescue work if an emergency situation arises. The tunnel is a modified horseshoe shape tunnel connecting the Sumber Station yard on the Southside and Tunnel T-50 after crossing Bridge no.04 over Khoda Nallah on the North side, at Khoda village.

The officials have said that Tunnel T-49 is a twin tube tunnel comprising the main tunnel which is 12.75 km long and the escape tunnel which is 12.895 kms connected with 33 cross-passages.

A government release said, “The Escape Tunnel passes through the Ramban formation of the Young Himalayas and besides this, various distributaries/Nallahs of Chenab River like Khoda, Hingni, Kundan nallah etc."

It added: “The tunnel mining was very challenging and several surprises were met during tunneling. Excessive deformations were recorded during tunneling at several locations between Kundan and Seeran, but these challenges were successfully tackled professionally."

The tunnel, the government release said, was constructed by the New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM), which is a modern technique of drill and blast processes.

A senior official said, "The construction work of escape tunnel (12.895 km) for the longest rail tunnel T-49 between Khari and Banihal stations of Katra under USBRL project was completed today after successfully negotiating major cavity formation," adding, “This is the longest escape tunnel of India and its line and level are precisely achieved."