Major engineering problems have already resulted in the suspension of work on the Katra-Qazigund section of the link to Kashmir; the Railways now find themselves struggling to take the line up to even Katra.

The 25.2-km line connecting Udhampur and Katra — sanctioned 14 years ago — will not be operational before 2012, The Indian Express has now learnt.

This Rs-640 crore section of the link was scheduled for inauguration in March 2005. The Railways subsequently revised the date of inauguration to December 2006, and then, to February 2007. Now, they have realised that a 1.8 km portion of a major tunnel on the route will have to be re-aligned — and this will take at least another three years and an additional Rs 100 crore.

“Only 1.4 km of the 3.2 km-long T-1 tunnel will now be retained. The remaining 1.8 km stretch will be diverted. The new design is ready and we plan to go for tendering soon. Works will only get completed by June 2012 although we have set an internal deadline of December 2011,” said Northern Railway Chief Administrative Officer RK Gupta.

As much as 10.9 km of the 25-km Udhampur-Katra section — 44 per cent — is tunnels. There are nine major and 29 minor bridges along the route. While all tunneling and bridge works have been completed, the problem of “squeezing and swelling due to expansive soil conditions” has resulted in the collapse of a 60-m section of one of the tunnels, referred to as Tunnel T-1. Railway engineers have had major problems maintaining Tunnel T-1, which has shown a tendency to deform and collapse due to weak rocks along a fault line.

“We had referred the matter to an Austrian consultant, the Geo Consult, who have now advised us to divert this tunnel. As it is, the cost of repairing the tunnel works out to be the same as that of constructing a new one. Since the Maximum Moving Dimensions (MMD) of a train are fixed, we cannot

take a chance, and have decided to divert this tunnel,” Gupta said.

A second tunnel on the route, Tunnel T-3, which passes through an underground water channel, too, has presented difficulties. Railway engineers, however, say T-3 is much more “structurally safe” than T-1.

Senior officials who did not want to be named said the situation is a direct fallout of the Railways’s short-sightedness and underestimation of the geographical and geological challenges the terrain presents.

“An Expert Committee is already examining the re-alignment of the Katra-Qazigund section where the Railways are mulling abandoning works worth Rs 750 crore. The fact that the line up to Katra, geographically less challenging than Katra-Qazigund, has the Railways on the backfoot and is set for another three year delay, should set alarm bells ringing,” said an official.