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Banihal railway station

Banihal 2014-08-18 23-37
Banihal 2014-08-18 23-37 Image: Wikimedia Commons. User:Owais khursheed / CC BY-SA 3.0

Overview

Banihal railway station is a railway station in the Ramban district of the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It serves the town of Banihal, situated at the southern end of the Pir Panjal range, and is one of the principal stations on the Jammu–Baramulla line being built as part of the Udhampur–Srinagar–Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) project of Indian Railways.

Key facts

Station name Banihal
Location Banihal, Ramban district, Jammu and Kashmir
Country India
Owned by Indian Railways
Operated by Northern Railway zone
Line Jammu–Baramulla line (USBRL)
Type Mainline railway station

Background

Banihal lies at the southern portal of the Pir Panjal Railway Tunnel, the rail tunnel that connects the Jammu region with the Kashmir Valley. The station was developed as part of the USBRL, a national project sanctioned to provide all-weather rail connectivity between the Kashmir Valley and the rest of the Indian railway network. Before the rail link, road access through the area depended on the Jawahar Tunnel on National Highway 44, which is frequently affected by snow and landslides during winter.

The station is located on the Jammu side of the Pir Panjal range, while the line continues northwards through the tunnel to Qazigund and onwards to Anantnag, Srinagar and Baramulla. The Pir Panjal Tunnel, at approximately 11 kilometres in length, was among the longest railway tunnels in India at the time of its opening.

History

The Qazigund–Banihal section, including the Pir Panjal Tunnel, was commissioned in 2013, extending the operational Kashmir Valley rail segment southward across the Pir Panjal range to Banihal. With this commissioning, Banihal became the southern terminus of the valley section of the USBRL until the remaining Banihal–Sangaldan and Sangaldan–Reasi sections were progressively completed, allowing through services to be planned between Jammu and Baramulla.

Services and significance

Banihal is served by passenger services running within the Kashmir Valley section, connecting it with stations such as Qazigund, Anantnag, Awantipora, Srinagar, Sopore and Baramulla. The station has played a strategic role in providing rail access to the southern fringe of the Kashmir Valley and to populations in the Banihal–Ramban belt, particularly during winter months when road traffic over the Pir Panjal is disrupted.

As successive sections of the USBRL have been commissioned, Banihal has functioned as an important intermediate station on the long-planned through route between Jammu and the Kashmir Valley, contributing to the integration of the valley with the wider Indian Railways network.

References