Afcons creates milestones in J&K!
A major milestone was achieved on the Udhampur Srinagar Baramulla rail link project (USBRL) on February 15, 2022, with the breakthrough of tunnel T49 between Sumber and Arpinchala Stations on the ongoing Katra-Banihal section. T49 is a 12.75 km-long tunnel and is going to be the longest tunnel of the Indian Railways surpassing the Peer Panjal tunnel of 11.2 km on the Banihal-Qazigund section. The south portal of Tunnel T49 is located in the picturesque Sumber Village at an altitude of 1,400 m, while the north portal of the tunnel is located near Arpinchala Village at an altitude of 1,600 m.
Afcons, a key player in the strategic project, made it to the breakthrough point from the north portal despite numerous geological challenges. Describing the momentous occasion, Afcons’ Project Manager Chandra Shekhar Dixit, said, “This is an incredible achievement for the Indian Railways, for the nation, and for Afcons. The project team has worked extremely hard for this day. Afcons has constructed 7.32 km of the 12.75 km-long tunnels amidst various geological and weather-related challenges.”
While executing the tunnel from the north portal, Afcons’ engineers excavated 4.07 km from a single adit. “This is the most critical and longest length executed by any agency from a single adit. No other agency in the entire USBRL project has excavated such a long distance from a single-phase,” Dixit said.
Amidst the challenge of working in extremely cold conditions (as low as -10 degree centigrade) during the winter months, the team faced another major hurdle. There was water ingress of 40-50 litres per second which made tunneling extremely difficult. “Since we were working on a downward gradient, on average, we had to dewater almost two lakh KWH units per month. The water ingress was due to numerous aquifers and nullahs crossing the tunnel alignment,” the Project Manager said. More than 60 per cent of the tunnel length was executed in very poor rock class. But extremely high deformation was observed in a 1.5 km stretch of the tunnel.
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