Indian Railways Reaches New Heights: Plans Worlds Highest Manali-Leh Line At 5,360 Meters  

The rail link between Manali and Leh, which is proposed at the height of 5,360 meters, will be the world highest once built. India’s first railway station inside a tunnel will come up in Himachal Pradesh.

The station will be built by the Indian Railways at the height of 3,000 feet inside a tunnel part of the strategically important line, which will provide an alternate route to the Army. It will come up in Keylong, which is the administrative centre of Lahaul and Spiti district, around 60 km from Manali and 120 km from the Indo-Tibetan border. The tunnel which will house the station will be 27 km long.

The 465-km line, to be built at a cost of Rs 83,360 crore, is likely to have around 74 tunnels, 124 major bridges and 396 minor bridges. The Indian Railways has completed the first location survey for the proposed line.

The government is planning to construct 14 strategic rail lines along India’s border, including the Missamari-Tenga-Tawang line (378km), North Lakhimpur-Bame-Silapathar line (249km) and Pasighat-Tezu-Rupai link (227km) along the China frontier.

In order to pay for the line, the railways has sough funding from the central government.