[Reader-list] "Train Services Thrills Kashmir"

[Shivam V]

A bridge too far

Bhavna Vij-Aurora
October 10, 2008
http://indiatoday.digitaltoday.in/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&issueid=68&id=17182&Itemid=1&sectionid=36


Nearly a decade after work began on an ambitious plan to connect
Kashmir's mountainous villages with the rest of the country by a
railway link, it has come apart with Lalu Prasad Yadav's Ministry
doing a sudden U-turn and abandoning work on the longest section
between Katra and Qazigund.

This section is the crucial part of the 346-km railway link. The
Jammu-Udhampur section was completed in April 2005. Construction from
the other end of the line has also made considerable progress but now
it appears that they may never meet since the fate of the major
connecting section is in limbo.

It seems to have suddenly dawned on the Railway Board that the
alignment of the 148 km-stretch is all wrong, and now they propose a
relatively shorter (92 km) alternate alignment, based on "toposheet
and satellite imageries".

And who do they blame for the loss of Rs 2,000 crore and 10 years of
hard work? "It was a political decision. In 2002, prime minister
Vajpayee announced that Srinagar will be connected with the rest of
the country through a railway line. We were forced to start the work
without proper surveys," claims Railway Board Member (Engineering)
S.K. Vij.

"It was my decision to stop work. For four-and-a-half years that the
work on the section has been going on, it is all wrong professionally
and from the engineering point of view," he says. His statement is,
however, refuted by engineers and experts.

"What Vajpayee did was to declare it a national project and ensure
that funds would be available. There is no point politicising the
issue just because the Railways have messed it up," says an engineer
with the project.

S.P.S. Jain and R.R. Jaruhar, who supervised the work before Vij,
counter the claim that the existing alignment is not feasible and also
that work on the section had begun without proper surveys. "For the
first time, the Railways used Digital Laser Terrain Modelling.

Remote sensing and satellite imagery were used to get the exact
alignment. It was mapped in great detail. Geological and seismic
studies were conducted. Aerial surveys were also done. This was
followed by physical surveys of most of the terrain," says a technical
officer in the Railways.

That it is a prestige project is evident by the fact that Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh too has been tracking its progress. Alarmed by
the turn of events, his office has asked for a status report on the
project and reasons for stopping the work on the section.

The decision to stop work has also invited queries from the Cabinet
Secretariat, Planning Commission and the Finance Ministry.

The Konkan Railway Construction Ltd (KRCL), incharge of the disputed
section, and Indian Railway Construction Company, which is
constructing the adjoining section, have told the Railways that they
have no problems with the present alignment but the ministry has given
written directions to KRCL not to commence any new work.

The ministry's order says: "Other than the main road works, all works
on the entire section with M/s KRCL be pended (sic) till further
advice."

Jaruhar says, "We knew right from the beginning that Katra-Qazigund
section is not going to be easy. We had to cross the Chenab and tunnel
through the Pir Panjal ranges. But technically, we knew it was
possible. It still is. Minor changes in alignment have been made along
the way, and more can be made. A completely new alignment is a waste
of money and time."

In fact, it can push the deadline for completion of the line to as
late as 2025. Vij presents a more optimistic picture. "Not before
2015," he says. Restarting the work on new alignment would take
another five to seven years since the process will have to begin from
scratch.

The plan, according to the Railways' engineering chief, is to get a
geological survey of the new proposed alignment done and follow it up
with an on-the-ground survey. Following that, tenders would be called
and awarded, and only then would work recommence.

"We are going to get a geological survey done by an Austrian expert at
a cost of Rs 10 crore. Meanwhile, an expert committee has been
constituted to study the alignments and take a view," Vij says. The
committee is still to be cleared by the railway minister, however.

Government sources say that, irrespective of the views of the
committee, the Railways will have to go back to the Cabinet for any
change in the alignment since it is a national project funded by the
Government.

Moreover, the line was envisioned more as a strategic and
psychological project with international ramifications. The claims and
counters only cloud the issue further.

"The idea was to connect Kashmiris even in the remotest areas to the
rest of the country. The new proposed alignment defeats the very idea.
The existing alignment was chosen since it connects more than 50
villages, as against barely seven in the new one," says a senior
bureaucrat.

Whatever the eventual fate of the project, its diplomatic and
political impact means that politics, and not economics, will cast the
final vote. Till then, the project stays derailed.




On Sun, Nov 9, 2008 at 3:40 PM, Kshmendra Kaul <kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 1 Pic and 2 News Reports
>
> 1. Pic at http://chinadaily.com.cn/world/2008-10/11/content_7097186.htm
>
> 2. "Train services thrills Kashmir " at http://etalaat.com/english/News/front-page/3150.html
>
> Etalaat News  Service
> Srinagar, October 12: On the first day of its commercial run in   Kashmir, hundreds of commuters travelled in rail today between various stations from Budgam to Anantnag.
>
> The train chugged off from Budgam at 7.25 A.M. with 300 passengers on board who were excited to have the first experience of rail travel in the Valley. Another 400 commuters boarded the train to Anantnag on its journey back. The number of passengers kept swelling as the train touched the next stations. By the time it arrived in Srinagar, there was no vacant seat available in the 588-seat capacity train and a large number of passengers had to travel while keeping standing.
>
> The train left the Anantnag station at 9.18 A.M. and arrived at Budgam at 10.50 A.M.
> The passengers - men, women and children - were highly enthusiastic about being among the first commercial passengers of the train that had been eagerly waited to run through the landscape of Kashmir. Many spoke about the joy and ecstasy they felt on being part of the history in making.
>
> Manzoor Ahmad of Budgam who was the first to alight from the train at Wanpoh, Anantnag station said that he considered himself to be very lucky for being the first passenger to have de-boarded at the end of the first commercial run of the train in Kashmir. He was one of the 450 passengers who alighted from the 8 coaches at Wanpoh as the train completed the maiden commercial run.
>
> In the second run of the day, 465 passengers de-boarded at Anantnag while 370 boarded the train there.
>
> The train was flagged off by the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh at Srinagar Railway Station yesterday with UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Governor, N. N. Vohra and Minister for Railway, Lalu Prasad Yadev witnessing the historic event.
>
> Chief Area Manager, Srinagar  P. K. Gupta said that the rail service has reduced the travel time for commuters by more than half. "On the top of it", he said, "It is more comfortable than road travel". He said that from Anantnag to reach Budgam it would normally take two and a half hour by road but the distance is covered by train in an hour and six minutes only.
>
> The passengers agree with him and also like the heating arrangements in the bogies. Riaz Ahmad of Nogam said that he had waited long for this momentous day to arrive and felt on cloud 9 to be on board the first commercial service.
>
> Gupta believes that the enthusiasm shown by the people was more than he had expected.
> Going by the excitement it has generated among the local people, the train in the Valley is likely to be a major attraction and a preferred mode of public transport within Kashmir. The fact that the travel by train is more comfortable and less time consuming than road travel, it is bound to considerably increase the number of rail commuters in the Valley.
>
> After all, who does not want to avoid being caught up in a traffic jam, especially when one has to reach office or home in time?
>
> 3. "First Train Runs In Kashmir Valley: History to Reality" at  http://www.groundreport.com/Arts_and_Culture/First-Train-Runs-In-Kashmir-Valley-History-to-Real
>
> by  Santosh Kumar Agarwal    October 12, 2008
>
> In an epoch making event, the Kashmir valley saw for the first time the flagging of a broad gauge train by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, fulfilling partly, the dream project of former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpai, who declared the project as National Project in 2001. The Train would run 66 Kms from Rajwansher in Srinagar to Anantnag twice daily and back, taking 1 hour and 35 minutes one way.
>
>
> Digging into history a bit, Maharaja Pratap Singh of Dogra hierarchy first contemplated a rail link to Srinagar in 1898. Starting with the first steaming of Railways in 1953, India already had more than 30000 miles of railways by the end of 19th Century. Although the plan of the maharaja could not be materialized at those times, the matter was revived after the partition in 1947 when Jammu got de-linked from the rest of the country. A 105Km rail link constructed and started operating between Pathankot-Jammu Tawi in 1970 at the behest of Indira Gandhi, who also kicked off the Jammu- Udhampur line in 1983 with a five-year completion schedule. But after her abrupt death, the 55 Km line could be commissioned only in 2004.
>
>
> Back again with the main topic, amid tight security with an undeclared curfew in the valley and a 'counter curfew' by the separatists, the train was flagged off with 100 school children as first passengers. Dignitaries present were Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, JK Governor N.N.Vora and other officials from rail and state governments, apart from the Prime Minister. The cheer people were significantly absent because of the prevailing situation in the Valley.
>
>
> Railway minister Lalu Yadav, who has achieved the status of an icon for his success in turning around the Indian Railways from loss making entity to a proverbial hen laying golden eggs, was very happy saying, "It is a historic day for people of Kashmir who can travel now 66km by train." But a land donor for this line had other things in mind when he expressed doubt about return of the elusive peace in the tormented valley in spite of the new railway era.
>
>
> Work on this railway line was just a modest beginning, being a  small  part  of  the  overall  project  of  joining  Kashmir valley with rest of India. The most difficult part being the stretch between Katra in Jammu to Quazigund in valley, a distance of about 150Km including an 11 Km long tunnel to cross Pirpanjal Range and is likely to take five years to complete. The stretch Quazigund to Srinagar (about 75Km) and then to Baramula (50Km) is easier to construct, as most of the track would be on flat valley. If every thing goes on as per  planning,  one  can  expect to reach Srinagar directly by train  from  standard  railheads  in  India  in  about five years time.
>
>
> Once completed, the 345 km Jammu-Srinagar-Baramula rail travel is likely to present the best scenic beauty in the world, along with the Houseboats and Sikaras of Dal Lake.
>
>
>
>
>
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