Varshesh Industries Pvt Ltd

Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) - appx.272 Km

History:
The project has a mentionable history which we claim to be our Jewel in the Crown. This project of linking Jammu to Srinagar had an vision by one of the chairman of our Indian Railway Board. After the Jammu - Udhampur railink got conceived the next most obvious challenge for the Railway engineers was to connect the Udhampur to Srinagar.

Even before Independence of India, there were attempts to connect Srinagar valley with Jammu. Numerous attempts were made after Independence. Non were technically or financially feasible.

Some where it was always a dream for most railway engineers to link the beautiful Srinagar Valley by rail. This means crossing the great Pir Panjal Ranges and also the Banihal pass. In the early 60’ the Northern Railways surveyed the topology of the Udhampur - Srinagar valley section and proposed a Narrow gauge alignment. This narrow gauge alignment was reviewed number of times but no anvil. It was then, sometimes in the late eighties, given to a Govt of India Undertaking in Railways, now Head Quartered, out of Gurugram, Haryana, India. The responsibility of finding an alignment was given to RITES. RITES proposed an alignment and presented their detailed survey report where the alignment has the following peculiarities.

1:60 Grade
Around 400km Length From Udhampur To Baramulla.
Two River Chenab Crossings.
Two Long Tunnels Of Over 10kms.
Katra Was Not Connected.
Cost Of Project Was Around Rs.3000 Crores (over and above Two Chenab crossing) And Construction Time Was Very Long.
Minimum Degree Of Curvature 6 Deg.
Meter Gauge.

Some where along this proposal, 2 catch siding were proposed with see-saw configuration. This proposal of alignment was passing from Doda side. Basically, this was rejected on technical grounds and then financial grounds too.

Then, in 1997, Late Maj. (Retd.) Navin Chandra was approached in his office by retired Member Engineer Railway Board,
Mr. J. S. Mundery.

About our Chairman & Managing Director, Late Major(Retd.) Navin Chandra B.E.(Civil) Roorkee, M.Sc., Ph.E., ITC , The Netherlands, Survey of India, Bengal Sapper, who was the brain force behind the design. The path shown by Maj. Navin Chandra lead to the reality of today, without which it would not have seen the light of the day. An acknowledgement by the Railway Board was done by mentioning in the Railway Magzine.

Best Engineering Solutions come from Small companies:

In the Initial discussion, then and there only, Maj. Navin Chandra, was confident of carrying out the task. The next meeting was at Northern Railway, Kashmiri Gate office.

The then Chief Engineer was classmate of Maj. Navin Chandra from Roorkee, today IIT-Roorkee.

I, Nitin Chandra, was fortunate enough to be privy to that preliminary technical meeting and working on this project. Under guidance of Late Maj. (Retd.) Navin Chandra, I learnt designing of this railwaline alignment, software developement and many more aspects of finding the alignments, project management.

Back to main line of discussion :

Chief Engineer : Navin, you are committing such parameters of design, that even some of the current Rajdhani trains, at some places, gets derailed on a gradient of 1:80 (C). Are you sure you will be able to keep up-to your words ?

Maj. Navin Chandra : Bro, I not only will give/propose a gradient of 1:100 (C), but the design speed will be 100 Km / Hr. Typically trains run 20-30% less as per design speed. So not only will be possible, it will be a World Record of some sorts.

Maj. Navin Chandra knew, but then Who knew, Today Chenab Crossing is the one of the Highest railway bridges of the World. A Record of some sorts.

Maj. Navin Chandra, Served the Nation while in the Indian Army, served the Nation after Retirement. Left Me with the same values – Serve the Nation.

Our Credibility :
Under able leadership and guidance of Maj. Navin Chandra, we take pride in providing some of the best engineering solutions to our country. Hence we were 1st given a section of 50km as a sample at a nominal consultation fees, of already done section : Jammu – Udhampur Section. As this section was half constructed. Not much further work was done, But established our credibility and ability to execute the main work.

Then came the main work, proposing the alignment from Udhampurt to Qazugund – Srinagar -Baramulla.

Vaishnu Devi Shrive at Katra.
After a week of starting work and study of Survey of India, toposheet, Maj. Navin Chandra noticed Mata Vaishno Devi shrine on toposheet and close to Udhampur, and decided to take the alignment from Katra, and this is how Katra got connected for us all pilgrims. ONE of the few notables while designing of the project.

We optimized the alignment and reduced the total length and further in presentation to Railway Board we proposed to reduce the length and also set the following parameters.

1:100 (C)grade compensated.
Maximum Radius of curve 2.75 Deg
Broad Guage.
Only one long tunnel of appx.10km.
Total appx. length 290km.
Only one Chenab X-ing.
Design speed of 80-100 KM/Hr

The total cost difference in the alignment of the Railways & RITES vs Mapsets was over Rs.800 crores. In our final presentation to the Railway Board, our proposed alignment of appx. 290 km and costing around Rs.3600 crores, plus an additional cost of Rs.1000 crores for the cable stayed bridge at river chenab and the 10.5km long Banihal Tunnel was approved in the 1st presentation itself. If and when the cable stayed bridge and the Banihal Tunnel when constructed will be entries in the genius book of world record’s in the category of the highest cable stayed bridge and the longest B.G. tunnel at the of 383mts highest altitude. 1780mt. 10.5km.

TECHNOLOGY USED:
Photogrammetry, satellite imageries, Survey of India toposheet on different map scales and Exclusively in-house developed software’s to prepare DTMs, tunnel and bridge lengths, quantity calculation & optimise alignments.

The Technical approach:
The Aerial Photographs were procured by the Northern Railways after Mapsets gave them the coordinates on which the flying was to be carried out. The Indian Air Force carried out fresh flying on the alignment which was proposed after carrying out a through study on 1:50000 toposheets. Before all this exercise, care was taken to clear all our staff and engineers from the Ministry of Defense, due to the strategic importance of the Data.

The aerial photographs were provided by the Railways / Defence, on a scale of 1:40000 and all were returned.

On this one chosen corridor we short listed the Aerial photos and returned the rest along with their topographical sheets. This corridor was then plotted on the topo sheets of 1:25,000 and a more accurate DTM was made which had features like Temples and playgrounds and all the new buildings were updated by the aerial photos.

Following the stringent norms which our Managing Director Major Navin had set for the alignment, our team proposed three alignments and running the interpolation programs we got the X,Y&Z of the alignment. Draft plot of the complete Udhampur Katra section was taken and proposed a grade and the curves for all the three alignments. Our study was well backed by frequent ground visits.

Our Heights as we checked them along the proposed alignment were within 5cm. accuracy from the Aerial photogrammetry.

Once the alignment was finalised with the Northern Railways, we went to fix the final alignment of the most difficult terrain in the world. We fixed the alignment using total stations in close conjunction with the differential global positioning system (DGPS). We also carried pocket mirror stereo-scopes and parrallax bars to verify our ground location and heights. Our age old method of plane table fixing, was the most handy tool. Due to reasons like terrorism, weather and the Terrain the project took 5 years. The Railway Board, Northern Railways, and the local population were extremely co-operative in getting the work done. This technical feat could not have been possible had it not been for some very committed officers of the Indian Railways.

My Father, Late. Maj. (Retd.) Navin Chandra, had also proposed one extension to the alignment from Qazigund along Sophina to Gulmarg. A very picturesque view and good for tourism... Those days, Truly a Visionary Extraordinaire.

We marked the final center line of Udhampur station, of Katra, CHENAB crossing... the same Chenab crossing, Qazigund station, Pampore station, Srinagar station, Baramulla station and couple of others more.

Finally, would not have been possible on ground without CRPF, BSF Officers and Soilders and State Police in providing us with on ground security.

Our Team:

Shri. J.S. Mundre (Retd. Member Engineer, Railway Board, India)
Maj. Navin Chandra (Retd.)
Shri N. Gopalan (Retd. Advisor Railway Board)
Shri. R.N.Sharma (Retd. Dy. C.E. Northern railway)