Joles
7th Sep 2004, 20:52
Hi !
Just checked this news out :
India has sought the services of Kazakhastan government to airlift 30-odd rail coaches from Chennai and two diesel locomotives from Varanasi to Srinagar for the Qazigund-Srinagar-Baramulla section of railways, now under construction.
An SOS from India to Kazakhastan was sent after realising that Indian Air Force did not have transport aircraft big enough to lift the coaches buit at the Integral Coach Facotry (ICF), Railway Ministry sources told PTI on Tuesday.
The biggest aircraft that India has is IL-76, which cannot accomodate the specially-designed coaches to run on the stretch to the valley, they said
The only option left was to approach countries having AN-124.
Kazakhastan was one of the countries approached and it had responded favourably by agreeing to provide the aircraft. The world's largest heavy-lift cargo aircraft AN-124, possesed by the Central Asian state, was capable of airlifting these coaches as also the locomotives, they said.
The coaches and the locomotives were to be airlifted for the new rail link between Udhampur and Baramulla. The work on the 140 kms Qazigund-Baramulla rail line was in full swing and train services between Udhampur and Katra streching over 25 kms would be operational by March next year.
Earlier, work on the Udhampur-Srinagar-Qazigund stretch was stopped following the kidnapping and killing of the IRCON engineer Pundeer Kumar and his brother near the construction site, they said.
But before the work on the project could resume after the incident, the government was faced with the task of transporting the coaches and the diesel locomotives for the train.
The AN-124 would airlift the 30-odd coaches and two-to-three diesel locomotives only till Srinagar airport and from there they would be transported by road.
With the transportation of the coaches and diesel locomotives being sorted out, the Qazigund-Baramulla railway section would probably be completed in 2006, a full one year behind the scheduled 2005 dateline.
( source : Rediffmail.com:ok:
Just checked this news out :
India has sought the services of Kazakhastan government to airlift 30-odd rail coaches from Chennai and two diesel locomotives from Varanasi to Srinagar for the Qazigund-Srinagar-Baramulla section of railways, now under construction.
An SOS from India to Kazakhastan was sent after realising that Indian Air Force did not have transport aircraft big enough to lift the coaches buit at the Integral Coach Facotry (ICF), Railway Ministry sources told PTI on Tuesday.
The biggest aircraft that India has is IL-76, which cannot accomodate the specially-designed coaches to run on the stretch to the valley, they said
The only option left was to approach countries having AN-124.
Kazakhastan was one of the countries approached and it had responded favourably by agreeing to provide the aircraft. The world's largest heavy-lift cargo aircraft AN-124, possesed by the Central Asian state, was capable of airlifting these coaches as also the locomotives, they said.
The coaches and the locomotives were to be airlifted for the new rail link between Udhampur and Baramulla. The work on the 140 kms Qazigund-Baramulla rail line was in full swing and train services between Udhampur and Katra streching over 25 kms would be operational by March next year.
Earlier, work on the Udhampur-Srinagar-Qazigund stretch was stopped following the kidnapping and killing of the IRCON engineer Pundeer Kumar and his brother near the construction site, they said.
But before the work on the project could resume after the incident, the government was faced with the task of transporting the coaches and the diesel locomotives for the train.
The AN-124 would airlift the 30-odd coaches and two-to-three diesel locomotives only till Srinagar airport and from there they would be transported by road.
With the transportation of the coaches and diesel locomotives being sorted out, the Qazigund-Baramulla railway section would probably be completed in 2006, a full one year behind the scheduled 2005 dateline.
( source : Rediffmail.com:ok: