National
March 14, 2022

Building a railway tunnel is never an easy task. Moreover, if the tunnel is built on the mountainous region, the task becomes much more difficult. However, an impossible task has been achieved by the Indian Railways. In a trecherous mountainous range of Kashmir to the road to Himalayas, the Indian Railways have successfully built the longest railway tunnel.
It was the engineering marvel of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Railway Link (USBRL) has stunned the nation with its extraordinary approach in building its main – T-49 tunnel in an impossible terrain.
The last few years witnessed slow progress in the project due to the pandemic but with its expert team, today the tunnel T-49 has surpassed the 11.2-km long Pir Panjal Tunnel on the Banihal-Qazigund section of the Kashmir Railways Project. At a length of 12.758 km, T-49 is the longest tunnel of Indian Railways, running between Sumber and Arpinchala station of Katra-Banihal section of USBRL mega project.
The USBRL project is set to be 272 km long, constructed on access roads connecting 147,000 people in 73 villages; out of which 161 km that connects 29 villages, has already been commissioned and is in operation. The course includes numerous bridges, viaducts, and tunnels.