USBRL Project: Preparation for laying ballastless track in progress on Katra-Banihal section

Indian Railways has commenced the preparatory works for laying of the Ballastless Track (BLT) on the Katra –Banihal section of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) Project.

A ballastless track or slab track is a type of railway track infrastructure in which the traditional elastic combination of ties, sleepers and ballast is replaced by a rigid construction of concrete or asphalt.

This was revealed by officials during the inspection and review of the ongoing important works of the USBRL project by R N Sunker, Member Infrastructure on Tuesday.

Sunker was informed that the country’s “first cable-stayed bridge” Anji Bridge has been completed and preparatory works for laying the ballastless track are in progress, officials said.

Sunker, who inspected the entire section from Bakkal to Dugga by motor trolley, was also informed that the BLT has been laid in the section (the world’s highest railway bridge) and the work of installation of electro-mechanical devices is in progress, they said.

The BLT has to be laid on nearly 30 kilometres of track in different stretches on the 111-km stretch from Katra to Banihal.

He inspected and reviewed the ongoing important works of the Anji bridge, for which all 96 cables were fully installed on April 26 in a record time period of 11 months, they said.

Out of the total 272-km USBRL project, 161 km was commissioned in phases with the first phase of the 118-km Qazigund-Baramulla section commissioned in October 2009 followed by 18-km Banihal-Qazigund in June 2013 and 25-km Udhampur-Katra in July 2014.

The work on the 12.758 km long T-49 tunnel, connecting Khari Aarpinchla and Sumbar, was completed on February 15 last year, surpassing the Pir Panchal tunnel of 11.2 km length constructed by USBRL on the Banihal-Qazigund section.

With inputs from agencies.

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