Jammu, March 30 (Scoop News) – The Governor, N. N. Vohra, took stock of the pace of work on the construction of 11 kilometre long Pir Panjal Railway Tunnel connecting Banihal with Qazigund during his visit to the tunnel site at Banihal today.
Briefing the Governor, the Chief Engineer, Northern Railway, Achal Jain, said that out of the 11 km long tunnel, the work on 10.40 kilometres has since been completed. This includes 6.10 kilometres from the Banihal side and 4.30 kilometers from the Qazigund side. Work on the remaining 600 metres is proceeding apace and is scheduled to be completed by December 2011. He said that, thereafter, work for laying of the track will commence and the entire work, including its ventilation, lighting, fire fighting and monitoring systems etc will be put in place and the tunnel is targeted to be ready for commissioning by March 2013.
The First Lady, s. Usha Vohra, and the Principal Secretary to the Governor, R. K. Goyal, accompanied the Governor during the visit.
The Governor was apprised that New Austrian Tunneling Method (NATM) is being used in the construction of Banihal-Qazigund Tunnel, which is one of the longest transport railway tunnels in the country.
The Governor drove into the under-construction tunnel, where he was briefed about the various technical aspects. He emphasized the high importance of the tunnel and Udhampur-Katra-Banihal sections of this prestigious project being completed expeditiously as, on completion, this important Rail Link Project will not only provide all weather connectivity to the
The Deputy Chief Engineer, Northern Railway, Vinod Kumar, and senior Civil and Police officers of the Ramban District Administration were present on the occasion.
Earlier, on arrival at the Banihal Helipad, the Governor and the First Lady were received by the Additional Deputy Commissioner, Ramban, Ajay Singh Jamwal, SP Ramban, Anil Kumar Magotra, and the Army Officers representing the local and nearby located formations.
Later, on reaching Dharmund near Batote, the Governor and the First Lady were received by the DIG Doda, Munish Kumar Sinha, Deputy Commissioner, Ramban, Shabir Ahmad Bhat, Dy. GOC, CIF (Delta), Brig. Gopal Gurung, and other senior Civil, Police and Army officers.
The Governor and the First Lady drove to Patnitop where, during his discussions with the officers, the Governor emphasized the need for speedy initiatives being carried through to visibly upgrade existing facilities at this resort and to enlarge these significantly as a large number of tourists and locals visit this place round the year.
The Deputy Commissioner, Udhampur, B. A. Khan, DIG Udhampur, Jagjit Kumar, SSP, Udhampur, Surinder Kumar Gupta, Chief Executive Officer, Patnitop Development Authority, Dr. Akram Malik and other officers participated in the meeting.
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