HCC achieves daylighting of T49 - India’s longest railway tunnel

February 16, 2022: HCC has jointly achieved daylighting of the 13 km long of India’s longest and Asia’s second-longest tunnel T49 on Dharam-Qazigund Section of Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla New BG Railway line in Jammu & Kashmir. 
IRCON International Ltd awarded the construction of this T49 tunnel in two packages of T49A (5.1 km) and T49B (7.9 km), of which HCC is executing T49A.

The tunnel is being constructed by the traditional drill & blast method. The final blast to achieve the breakthrough connecting T49A and T49B was taken yesterday in the presence of Mr. A.K. Khandelwal, Chief Administrative Officer of Northern Railways. 

The efforts were coordinated by the IRCON team led by Mr. Akhil Agrawal, Chief General Manager, and HCC team led by Mr. Sharanappa Yalal, Project Manager. Mr. Phani Kumar, CEO - HCC E&C witnessed the tunnel breakthrough.

The current longest railway tunnel in operation in India is “Pir Panjal Tunnel” (11 km) between Banihal & Qazigund of Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla New BG Railway line in Jammu & Kashmir. It was also constructed HCC for IRCON.