The Rs 6,800-crore project to build a railway line into the Kashmir valley that was inaugurated with much fanfare by the then PM Vajpayee in July 2002 and slated for inauguration in 2007, has progressed by just 20% with the end nowhere in sight. Meanwhile, the cost estimates have reportedly skyrocketed to Rs 11,000 crore.

While the 66-km long section from Anantnag to Mazhom was inaugurated by the PM Manmohan Singh in October last year, Sonia Gandhi did the honors of inaugurating the 35-km long section from Mazhom to Baramulla early this year. Twenty diesel electric multiple units and two self-propelled accident relief trains trucked into the valley by road and based at Badgaon have started the skeleton services.

Apart from the serious threat to workers being posed by terrorists, the treacherous geological structure, especially of the critical Katra-Qazigund section, has become a major hurdle and even a change in the alignment may have to be considered.

In such a scenario, railways would be in an unhappy situation of being caught between the devil and the deep sea as any rethink about the unviable route would not be welcome by those towns or villages that have been pinning their hopes on the railway line, which may soon bypass them.

The Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla link is 292-km long and crosses major earthquake prone zones, and is subjected to extreme temperatures as well as inhospitable terrain, making it an extremely challenging engineering project.

Realising its strategic importance, Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister had inaugurated the Jammu-Udhampur project in 1983 with an optimistic schedule of five years to be completed with just Rs 50 crore. In 2002, facing a barrage of separatist demonstrations in the Valley, Vajpayee declared the now-expanded Jammu-Baramula line as a national project. April 2005 saw the functioning of the first leg of 55 km from Jammu to Udhampur, with 20 tunnels and 158 bridges. Even with the longest tunnel at 2.5 km and the highest bridge at 77 metres, this part was relatively easy. Crossing the Pir Panjal would be a different kettle of fish.

Though there are no problems associated with permafrost or extreme elevations (reaching almost 5,000 metres), as were encountered by the Chinese when they built the Tibet Railway, alignment for the Kashmir Railway still presents one of the greatest railway engineering challenges ever faced, for a number of other reasons such as absence of roads and extremely poor accessibility. Reportedly no less than 300 km of approach roads alone need to be made.

The route includes about 580 bridges and over 100 km of tunnels, the longest being nearly 11-km long. It will also have one of the highest bridges?the 1.3-km long bridge crossing the Chenab with the track at almost 360 metres above the river. The route also involves the Anji Khad being crossed with a 657-metre long bridge.

The project is made costlier and complex on account of the 1,676-mm wide broad gauge, the need to maintain a 1% ruling gradient, and the provision for doubling and electrification at a later stage. Of course, standard specifications for a main line high-speed route are being incorporated, including high tensile continuously welded steel rails laid on concrete sleepers with a minimum curve radius of 676 mm capable of permitting trains to run at 100 kmph.

While the Northern Railway has taken up the rather easy job of building the 25-km long Udhampur-Katra Section, two public sector entities under the ministry of railways, Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd and Ircon (Indian Railway Construction Company) are in charge of the 90-km long Katra-Laole section and the 170-km long Laole-Baramulla section respectively.

Hindustan Construction Company, with Geoconsult, is responsible for constructing both the north and south sections of the 11-km long Banihal tunnel at a cost of about $120 million, with Rites (Rail India Techno Economic Services) as the consultants. Ultra Engineering of South Korea has the task of designing and construction of the vital Chenab Bridge, while Gammon has tied up with Archirodon Construction of South Africa to build the Anji Khad Bridge.

With the mounting law and order problems in the Valley, an early completion of the project would be highly desirable and before criticism could mount, the railway board last year appointed a high power committee headed by V Ravindra, the retired chairman of the railway board. The committee submitted a road map for the troublesome Katra-Qazigund section, a job nothing short of pulling the rabbit out of a hat.

However, reportedly Mamata Banerjee is furious with the railway board for the manner in which it put up this report to her without giving its considered views on various points brought out in it. Understandably, Mamata does not want to be a party to a decision that has not been well thought out for, especially when the Ravindra committee has recommended a shorter, cheaper and a safer alignment than the previous one. The new alignment cuts down the distance between Katra and Banihal from 125 to just 67 km, reducing the number of bridges from 96 to seven and tunnels 64 to eight.

?The writer is a former member (mechanical), Railway Board