Rs 23,000 Crore Will Be Spent For Building India’s Longest Tunnel In This State!

India’s Char Dham Railway project is well underway in Uttarakhand.

In brief

The ambitious project is the Indian Railways’ proposed route to improve connectivity to the Char Dham shrines of Yamunotri, Gangotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath.

It is considered to be of national strategic importance and is tracked on the Central Government’s PRAGATI (Pro-active Governance and Timely Implementation) portal.

It is expected to be completed by December 2024.

The project was initially budgeted at Rs 16,216 crore and was later revised to Rs 23,000 crore.

What is it?

The 125.20-km-long Rishikesh – Karnaprayag Railway Tunnel project is a single-track broad gauge railway line with 12 stations.

It will include a 14 kilometre tunnel between Devprayag and Janasu, the longest in India.

The route from Rishikesh to Karnaprayag will have 35 bridges, 17 tunnels, and 12 stations.

These include Rishikesh, Muni Ki Reti, Shivpuri, Manjilgaon, Sakni, Devprayag, Kirtinagar, Srinagar, Dhari, Rudraprayag, Gholtir, Ghauchar, and Karanprayag.

Om Prakash Malgudi, senior project manager for Railway Vikas Nigam Limited responsible for the undertaking, has said that the track would begin at Virbhadra, close to Rishikesh.

Utility

Once completed, it will reduce the travel time between Rishikesh and Karnaprayag from seven hours to just over two hours.

It will also make it easier to access the Char Dham shrines of Yamunotri, Gangotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath.

Thanks to this tourism, adventure sports, trade and transport will get a boost.

A large number of foreign and domestic tourists visit the region for adventure sports as well as sight seeing. 

Purpose

The existing road connectivity travels through mountainous slopes in the region pose challenges to travelers in terms of load, speed, safety and capacity.

They must travel through narrow ghat roads, always prone to mud and landslides due to frequent rains, potentially putting lives at risk.

This project, by providing connectivity to these Char Dham regions, will make the travel much safer, comfortable, environment friendly, and economical.