The Hindu Business Line : Rlys on the road to put trains on track in Kashmir

Connectivity hitch
Ircon has called for bids from transport companies to move passenger coaches.
Six companies have responded for transporting 24 coaches.
The other option is for Ircon to get the coaches airlifted to J&K.

New Delhi , May 8

The Railways may need the help of its main competitor, the road transport sector to move its rolling stock to kick-start the proposed train service in the Kashmir valley.

By December this year, the Railways plans to start a train service between Avantipura and Rajwanser, which will eventually be a part of the entire rail link connecting Kashmir to the rest of India. This 41-km stretch is nearing completion, but there is a problem in reaching the passenger coaches to the stretch in the absence of a rail link to these points.

Usually when Railways needs to move coaches, the rolling stock is pulled on train lines. But in this case, the rail link till the stretch concerned is being constructed and is not expected to be ready before 2008.

Thus, Ircon International, the organisation responsible for the construction of the stretch, is trying to move the coaches by road for which it has invited tenders from transport companies.

"Work has been accelerated on the Avantipura-Rajwanser rail link to operationalise it by December 2006," said the Ircon Managing Director, Mr B.S. Kapur. A train can be run on the link by the year-end provided the height of overhead electrical lines are increased.

Mr Kapur said "Six firms have responded for transporting 24 coaches. The technical evaluations are on. Moving each coach by road would cost about Rs 15 lakh." If this option fails, Ircon may have to get the coaches airlifted. It had earlier done a feasibility study on whether coaches could be transported by dismantling them.

Entire link by 2008

The Avantipura-Rajwanser stretch is a part of the Indian Railways' ongoing project to build rail link along Udhampur-Katra-Laole-Qazigund-Baramulla. The Railways aims to complete the entire link by 2008.

While construction work of Udhampur-Katra line has been awarded to Northern Railways, Katra-Laole line (about 95 km long) is entrusted to Konkan Railways and Ircon has undertaken the work for Laole-Qazigund-Baramulla stretch. The 45-km-long Laole-Qazigund stretch involves construction of the 11.5-km-long Banihal tunnel, which could be the country's longest railway tunnel.