SRINAGAR: Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw informed the Lok Sabha on Wednesday that Jammu and Kashmir’s yearly budget allocation for safety and infrastructure projects has increased by five times this year.
In a written reply to a question, the minister said that the annual budget allocation for infrastructure projects and safety works has witnessed substantial growth.
He said that there has been an incredible increase in 2023–2024, with the amount surpassing Rs 6003 crores, more than five times the previous statistics.
He also said that the work of the new line in Jammu & Kashmir is being undertaken under Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) Project. “Out of the total 272 Km of the project, 161 KM has already been commissioned. The work of Katra-Banihal (111 km) section has been taken up. Anticipated cost of the project is Rs 37,012 crore, against which, expenditure of Rs 34,261 crore has been incurred up to March, 2023 on the project. An Outlay of Rs 5,310 crore has been allocated for 2023-24,” he added.
“The USBRL project is, perhaps, the most difficult new railway line project undertaken in the country post-independence. The terrain passes through young Himalayas, which are full of geological surprises and numerous problems. This section predominantly involves tunnelling i.e. 97.42 Km out of 111 Km (i.e. 87%) of length of Katra-Banihal section is in tunnels and maximum length of tunnel T-49 is 12.77 Km, which will be longest transportation railway tunnel in the country. Railway has made the world’s highest Railway Bridge over Chenab river in Reasi,” he added.
He further said that the iconic Chenab Bridge is 1315 m long having Arch span of 467 m and height of 359 m above river bed. “Indian Railway’s first cable stayed bridge has been constructed over AnjiKhad. Its bridge deck is 331m above the river bed level and height of its Main pylon is 193m. Final Location Survey (FLS) has been sanctioned including doubling of Baramulla-Banihal section (135.5km), New Line of Baramulla-Uri (50km), New Line of Sopore-Kupwara (33.7km), New Line of Awantipora-Shopian (27.6km) and New Line of Anantnag-Bijbehara-Pahalgam (77.5km).
The project has generated more than 553 lakh man-days of indirect employment so far. Another crucial facet of the project’s socio-economic development efforts has been the construction of over 215 km of approach roads, which include construction of a tunnel and 320 small bridges,” he added.
