Traffic wont be allowed through rail tunnel : Railway Authority

The railway authorities have ruled out the idea of using Qazigund-Banihal railway tunnel for the vehicular traffic during inclement weather and snowfall.
According to the highly-placed sources in the Northern Railways, the officials have informed Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti in a meeting on Monday that they cannot allow regular traffic inside the Qazigund-Banihal tunnel.
However, they did not refuse to allow ambulance in case of ‘extreme emergency’.
Source informed Kashmir Post that the CM had called a meeting with a team of the Northern Railways to discuss the possibility of using the Qazigund-Banihal tunnel during bad weather and snowfall.
“The team of officials, including technical heads, has informed the Chief Minister that they cannot allow regular traffic to ply through the rail tunnel during snowfall as it is technically not possible,” the source informed.
The 11.215-km-long railway tunnel is 8.40-m wide, with a 3-m wide service road, which is being used for the maintenance work of the track inside the tunnel.
The CM took up the issue of use of the Qazigund-Banihal railway tunnel with , in Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu in New Delhi on Friday. The minister had assured her all support.
“The technical team informed the CM that they use the service road for maintenance purpose only, that too with the monitoring of the technical team. So, it will be risky to allow regular traffic inside the tunnel,” the source added.