135 kms Banihal-Baramulla railway section to have double lane soon

Umaisar Gull Ganie

Qazigund, May 08: The Northern Railways is likely to expand the existing 135 kilometre long Banihal-Baramulla railway track in Jammu and Kashmir into a double track. For this, tenders for carrying out a survey have been allocated by the Central government.

Talking to news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), Chief Area Manager (CAM) Kashmir Railways, Saqib Yousuf said the Ministry of Railways has invited tenders to start Final Location Survey (FLS) for double lanning of Baramulla-Qazigund section.

“Tenders have been issued for the engineering survey of the Railway line/roadway using modern survey techniques such as Aerial Survey (Aerial Photogrammetric survey or Aerial LiDAR) and DGPS (Differential Global Positioning System)”, he said. There is a single-track line from Baramulla to Qazigund and the project, if approved will double the capacity of the Railways.

CAM said that after the proposed survey, the capacity of the trains and the number of the trains will increase tremendously. “The capacity of the trains will be doubled,” he said. He said the work is expected to start soon.

Asked if fresh land was being allocated for the project, Saqib said, only after the survey gets completed, it is the Railways that will determine whether additional land is required for the project—(KNO)