Title - Protest forces Railways to cancel engine trial-run through Pir Panjal tunnel

Railways will have to conduct trial-run of train engine through Pir Panjal tunnel, India's longest railway tunnel, once again as protestors didn't allow the trial to complete on Thursday.

The trial-run had covered just 4.5 kilometers of the 11.2 kilometer Pir Panjal tunnel, when the protesters blocked the railway track demanding brief halt points on the route so that they can install stalls to earn livelihood.

Pir Panjal tunnel is the country's longest railway tunnel connecting Banihal in Jammu to Qazigund in Kashmir.

Speaking on the topic, a Railway official said, "We covered 4.5 kilometers but protesters did not allow us to go further. Tunnel is complete and everything is in place and we will be doing the trail run again shortly."

The railway official also assured protestors that the department would look into their demands.

The construction of Pir Panjal tunnel was started in 2005, and since then nearly Rs 1,300 crore have been spent on the construction work. It is the longest in India and the second-longest in Asia after China. It has been built underneath the Jawahar tunnel on Srinagar-Jammu national highway.