The longest transportation tunnel of the country on the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link was opened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday as he flagged off the first electrified trains of the Kashmir valley.
"Prime Minister Modi was present in Jammu and he virtually flagged off two electrified trains simultaneously -- one from Srinagar to Sangaldan in the down direction and the other from Sangaldan to Srinagar in the up direction," a railway official said.
He added that the prime minister also inaugurated the 48.1-km-long Banihal-Khari-Sumber-Sangaldan section.
"This longest tunnel, which is 12.77-km long and known as T-50, falls between the Khari-Sumber section," the official said.
According to the Northern Railway, trains can now run from Baramulla to Sangaldan via Banihal, which used to be the last or originating station earlier. T-50 is supposed to be the most challenging of the 11 tunnels in the Banihal-Khari-Sumber-Sangadal section.
According to railway officials associated with the project, the tunnel work started around 2010 and it took almost 14 years to operationalise it.
"All safety measures have been taken inside the tunnel to meet emergency situations. An escape tunnel has been constructed parallel to T-50 to evacuate passengers in case of any emergency," an official said. -- PTI