After the Banihal-Baramulla
railway, the Indian Railways should now plan to build a line in the plains of
Ladakh along the Indus River. Its
alignment could be from Batalik-Khalatse-Leh-Karu to
Chushul. The stretch, of approximately 500
kilometres, is plain, interspersed with populated and
fertile regions and is along an arterial road in Ladakh,
from Batalik to Chushul.
We propose this idea inspired by
the popular, standalone 119 km Baramullah-Qazigund railway line
in the Kashmir Valley, in operation since October 2009. With the recent
inauguration of the 11 km Qazigund-Banihal tunnel by
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Kashmir Railway will now extend from
Baramulla to Banihal. The railway tunnel, constructed at a cost of Rs.1172
crore, will be operational round the year unlike the Jawahar Road tunnel which
closes during heavy snowfall for a few days. This railway line is a popular
all-weather mode of transportation for passenger and freight in the valley,
evident from the fact that there have been no threats by insurgents to this
service. It is run by a 1,400 HP diesel engine with a heating system for quick
and trouble free service in winter. The Qazigund-Banihal section does not connect
the Kashmir Valley with the national network of the Indian Railways. It is only
an internal rail point of Kashmir touching Banihal which is a part of the Jammu
region.
Strategic lines
The importance of all-weather
connectivity by rail to remote regions has been recognised by the Government of
India not only as a strategic necessity but also as a more economical mode of
transport for development. It has so far accepted 11 national railway projects
to enable greater integration of remote regions with the rest of India. One of
them is the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramullah stretch. The
construction of a 290 km-long railway line with a budget of Rs.19,565 crore is
to be completed by December 2017.
Green project
Approximately one-third of the work
has been completed which includes Banihal to Baramullah. The remaining work,
from Udhampur to Banihal, is one of the greatest engineering challenges in the
world and across the mighty Pir Panjal range. Perhaps the
only system it can be compared with is the Qinghai-Tibet Railway connecting
Golmund to Lhasa, which has been in service from July 1, 2006.
In addition, some more strategic
projects are in the pipeline. These include
a major 500 km-long Srinagar-Kargil-Leh line. The
Railway Budget of 2013-14 includes a survey for this project. This would again
be a great engineering feat over the Zanskar mountains and a part of the Great
Himalayan Range.
A railway line along the Indus in
the Ladakh plains, similar to the Banihal-Baramullah railway in the Valley,
would in comparison be a low cost project. The alignment suggested is from
Batalik, 40 km north east of Kargil along the northern bank of the Indus, to
Loma Bend-Khalatse, to Ladakh’s capital, Leh, which is also a military base, to
Karu-Upashi, another military base. From here, it can connect to another
proposed line from Manali (the Rs.22,831 crore Bilaspur-Manali-Leh line is
understood to be under consideration by the Planning Commission). Here, the
line would leave the Indus and move northeast towards Pangong Tso/Chushul. The
route, of approximately 500 km, is plain; it needs no tunnelling and the
construction of very few bridges. It is a cost-effective proposal and would be
of immense help to the people of Ladakh, in the same way the Banihal to
Baramullah link is to the people of the Valley. It can be constructed in a few
years while the mega projects to connect these regions with the rest of the
country take shape. There are already audit and seismic issues on these mega
projects.
Environmentally speaking, this project
will also be a clean one, as it will provide a green
alternative in the Ladakh desert to the hundreds of
military and civil vehicles which ply everyday on the Battalik-Leh-Karu-Chushul
artery. It will save millions of barrels of fuel, which, when transported to
Ladakh now ends up becoming even more expensive. The Army always prefers rail
transportation as a quicker and cheaper mode of transport for troops and
material. The suggested 500 km of alignment is all along army bases. The recent
incident at Depsang highlighted the lack of good roads in Ladakh; an Indus
Valley Railway may help in improving infrastructure at a low cost.
Helping Ladakh
Tourism will also get a boost.
Travelling in air-conditioned coaches in moonscape-like country would be so
much better than riding in polluting vehicles on high altitude roads. In March
2013, certain scenic areas close to Pangong Tso, a beautiful lake — a third of
which is in India and the rest in Tibet — were opened to foreign tourists
(“Ladakh areas to open to tourists,” The Hindu, March 2, 2013). There would be
hardly any place so beautiful and serene as this region of Ladakh. The economy
of the Ladakhis will improve substantially, especially along the railway route.
The Ladakhis had a flourishing border trade with Xinjiang, the Central Asian
countries and Tibet. After the closure of the Karakoram Pass to Xinjiang in
1949, and Demchok and other passes to Tibet in the late 1950s, Ladakh has had
no impetus for economic growth. Tourism has benefits but the local people
complain that the main beneficiaries, mainly transporters, are outsiders. The
suggested Indus Valley Railway line would benefit local and small transporters.
( Virendra Sahai Verma and P.
Wangdus are former army veterans from the military intelligence who have served
in the Ladakh region )
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