NEW DELHI: In a big boost to connectivity in Kashmir, PM Narendra Modi is likely to inaugurate the 6.5-km Z-Morh road tunnel between Gagangir and Sonmarg in the Valley on Lohri (January 13) to make Sonamarg an all-weather tourist destination. The Indian Railways on Wednesday also successfully operated a train at 110 kmph on USBRL’s Katra-Banihal section, paving the way for train operations between Katra and Srinagar.
Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the final stage of inspection by the Commissioner of Railway Safety for the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) was conducted on Wednesday. He added that the specially designed Jammu-Srinagar Vande Bharat with eight coaches, equipped with anti freezing features, will be operational soon.
Sharing details of the Z-Morh tunnel project’s inauguration, sources said the PM is scheduled to physically inaugurate the tunnel. At present, the Gagangir-Sonamarg stretch gets blocked by heavy snowfall and avalanches during winters. The two-lane tunnel will bring down travel time to barely 15 minutes, compared to hours taken by vehicles to cover the zig-zag road.
Once the adjacent Zoji-La tunnel is completed, the travel between Srinagar and Leh will be seamless and will provide connectivity to Baltal (Amarnath cave shrine), Kargil and other places in the Ladakh region. It will also allow faster and smoother movement of military vehicles to the border.
Just when the Z-Morh tunnel was almost complete for opening, terrorists attacked the workers’ camp at Gagangir last Oct. In the indiscriminate firing, seven civilians, including six non-local workers of the infrastructure company building the tunnel, were killed. “The project is now ready for inauguration and security issues have been addressed,” a source said.
On the 272-km USBRL project, costing around Rs 40,000 crore, Vaishnaw said the government has given priority to safety before opening the rail link to Kashmir with the rest of the country. He said the redevelopment of the Jammu station will be complete by Aug and it will have eight platforms and modern amenities. “It was a very challenging project and the toughest challenge was to give foundation support to the world’s highest arch bridge (359 m) on the Chenab river and country’s longest transportation tunnel,” he said.
Vaishnaw added that snow removal train, which will move ahead of passenger and freight trains, will make sure that services on this strategic route runs all through the year. The railways has also used anti-vibration seismic devices in the project as this region falls under Zone-V earthquake vulnerability. The dampers will absorb the tremors, and thus, maintain faster and safer travel.
