India’s Longest Escape Tunnel Ready
The Indian Railways on Thursday completed a tunnel on the 111 km under-construction Banihal-Katra section of the Udhampur Srinagar Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) in Jammu and Kashmir. The 12.89 km tunnel is the longest “escape tunnel” of India.
The escape tunnel has been constructed to facilitate rescue work in case of an emergency, according to railway officials. It passes through the Ramban formation of the Himalayas and besides this, various distributaries and drains of Chenab River like Khoda, Hingni, Kundan nallah cross all along the alignment, making drilling a highly challenging task.
The horseshoe-shaped escape tunnel connects the Sumber station yard on the south side and tunnel T-50, according to a government release. The elevation of the south end at Sumber is approximately 1400.5 metres and of the north end is 1558.84 metres.
