Katra-Udhampur railway line opens

 The 25-km long Udhampur-Katra rail section in J&K has been inaugurated by Prime Minister Narender Modi on 4th July. This section is a part of ambitious 326 kms long Udhampur- Katra- Quazigund- Srinagar -Baramulla  Railway Line (USBRL) project of Northern Railway and will provide seamless flow of rail traffic through Jammu to Katra via Udhampur through the entire Indian Railways network. 
The newly constructed Udhampur – Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra Rail Line is 25.6 km. long, consisting of the 9.4 km. long Udhampur- Chak Rakhwal and 15.5 km. long Chak Rakhwal- Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra sections. This railway line connects the important towns of Jammu region also.
This railway alignment has 10.9 km of tunneling, one important, 7 major and 29 minor bridges. The station on this section is Chakrakhwal in addition to Udhampur and Katra. The construction of the rail line necessitated building of 12 ROB/RUBs in addition to about 38.86 lac cum of earthwork. The approximate cost of this rail section is Rs. 1132.75 crore upto 31st March. The bridge on River Jhajjar is the longest steel girder bridge in India with a height of 85 metres and with two spans of 154 metres each. The rail section has 22 curves with the sharpest curve at 5 degree.

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