On track

The Jammu and Kashmir railway line, conceived in another age, and re-imagined several times, proved to be as much a marvel as difficult. The spectacle of tunnel after tunnel and bridge after bridge is a toast to the human engineering acumen. Next month, the regions of Jammu and the Kashmir Valley, connected by a solitary road link through the Pir Panjal mountains now, are set to come closer in time and space. The 11-km-long tunnel between Banihal in the Jammu region and Qazigund in Kashmir will shorten the distance to 17.5 km from the 35 km on road. And it will take all of six minutes to cross the tunnel by train. On the verge of completion, it will be India’s longest transport tunnel and Asia’s second longest, situated 440 m below the existing Jawahar Tunnel used by vehicles currently.

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