Indian Railways: the longest tunnel is completed

The main tunnel of T-49, which is the longest tunnel of Indian Railways, between Sumber and Arpinchala station of Katra-Banihal section of Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) project was connected successfully on 15 February.

T-49 is a tunnel of length 12.758km long and it is going to be the longest tunnel of Indian Railway surpassing Peer Panjal Tunnel of 11.200km length constructed by USBRL on the Banihal-Qazigund section.

A major milestone has been achieved by executing break-through of Tunnel T-49 between Sumber and Arpinchala Station on ongoing Katra-Banihal Section. Out of 272km length of Udhampur Srinagar Baramulla Rail Link Project (USBRL) project, 161 km has already been commissioned and operationalized.

The South Portal of Tunnel T-49 is located in picturesque Sumber village at a distance of 45 km from H Q Ramban district of Jammu and Kashmir at an altitude of 1,400 meters, while the North Portal of the tunnel is located near Arpinchala village Tehsil Khari, Ramban district, in Mahu-Mangat valley at an altitude of approximately 1,600 meters.

The tunnel has two tubes - one is the main tunnel and other being escape tunnel. The tunnel has been constructed by New Austrian Tunneling Method (NATM), which is a modern technique of drilling and blasting. The cross-section profile of the tunnel is modified horseshoe-shaped.

Construction works were entrusted by NR to Ircon International which has assigned works in two packages to HCC and Afcons Infrastructure. HCC is executing the work of 5.1km length from South Portal and Afcons is executing the length of 7.658km from North Portal.