JAMMU, Apr 28: General Manager, Railway Electrification, Jagdev Kalia, today said that Jammu-Udhampur-Katra Railway line will be electrified within next...
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two years and single line between Chakki Bank to Jammu by end of current year.
Interacting with the media-persons at Railway Station here this morning after taking stock of the electrification projects, Mr Kalia said, “work on electrification of Chakki Bank to Jammu and Udhampur to Jammu railway lines is going on at the required pace so that Diesel Multiple Units (DMUs) are replaced by the Electric Multiple Units (EMUs) as early as possible”.
“Given the present pace of work, we are hopeful of completing the electrification work on Chakki Bank to Jammu by the end of current year while as the same on Udhampur-Jammu section is targeted to be completed by end of next year”, he said, adding electrification of second line would be carried out only after completion of all sorts of works by the construction division.
Disclosing that electrification work on Udhampur-Katra section would begin only after the opening of the railway line for normal train traffic, he hoped that within next two years Electric Multiple Units (EMUs) will start chugging up to holy town of Katra.
It is pertinent to mention here that on Udhampur-Katra railway line, problem of seepage is being faced on Tunnel Number 1 and direction of the tunnel is being changed to avoid the problematic area.
About Jammu-Udhampur section, Mr Kalia said, “at present work on 10 kilometer stretch from Udhampur to Ramnagar is going on and hopefully within next one or two months all sorts of work on this patch would be completed”.
Admitting that electrification of Jammu-Udhampur-Katra railway line is a challenging task, the General Manager said, “there are 20 tunnels and 14 bridges on Jammu-Udhampur section and special arrangements are required to be made at all these places in order to ensure safety of the electrification network”.
In response to a question, he said, “we have prepared special designs for electrification works in tunnels and on the bridges so that during inclement weather conditions the poles or the electricity supply lines don’t get damaged”.
Disclosing that sites have also been identified for setting up of electric sub-stations from where the power supply will be provided to the railway lines, Mr Kalia said that sub-station at Samba will provide power supply to Jammu-Pathankote section while as Jammu-Udhampur section would get electricity supply from sub-station at Manwal.
Responding to another question, the General Manager said, “the electrification of Katra-Dharam section has also been given nod but the work on the same would be possible only when the track is ready for chugging of the trains”.
Mr Kalia, who took stock of the railway electrification projects with the concerned officers, will again visit the sites particularly on Jammu-Udhampur Section in order to ensure that any hurdles in the completion of prestigious project are cleared and work is executed within the stipulated time-frame.