Northern Railway passes quake test

Maneesh Pandey / TNN / Nov 22, 2005, 00:50 IST

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The Northern Railway claims to have passed the litmus test in designing the World's highest and quake-resistant rail network in J&K.

NEW DELHI: The Northern Railway claims to have passed the litmus test in designing the World's highest �� and quake-resistant �� rail network in Jammu & Kashmir.
As the earthquake measuring 7.4 on the Richter scale devastated many parts of the Kashmir Valley last month, senior railway officials said the Jammu-Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla railway line showed no signs of cracks.
"This was revealed after a series of post-quake inspections on the site. Vibrations of over seven on the Richter scale left many workers, inside the tunnels and at railway tracks, terrified but unharmed," said Rakesh Chopra, chief administrative office (construction).
NR is building a 342-km-long rail network, linking the Jammu region with the often cut-off Kashmir Valley. This includes tunnels covering an area of about 30 km, as also 60-70 minor and major bridges.

"Men working on the 90-metre pier top between Katra and Udhampur felt the tremors. Many inside the tunnels fled as the earth shook. The only casualty was a contract worker working on the road project. Some railway equipment were crushed under the landslide," he said.
Chopra said while designing the rail network, the possibility of a high-intensity quake in this Himalayan belt was discussed at length.
"The last quake in Kashmir was in 1981 and it was under 7 on the Richter scale. While we plan our railway buildings with a life span of 100 years, we also know that a quake measuring over seven on the Richter scale might erupt once in 120 years, though we never expected it to happen so soon," said Chopra.
As a result, prior to the construction, a lot of aerial and satellite surveys were conducted. Apart from soil-testing, studies on terrain, rock-formation and local geological conditions were carried out before finalising the design pattern.

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