Northeast Infra: Rail Connectivity To Sikkim Gets Fast-tracked

Emphasising on providing rail connectivity to Northeast, the Railways is expediting the execution in Sikkim with completion of about majority of mining and bridge work in the project.

The Railways has been laying great emphasis on improvement in rail infrastructure in the North-eastern region.

North Eastern region is served by Northeast Frontier Railway consisting of eight states - Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya and Sikkim.

Out of eight states of North Eastern region, rail network connectivity now exists in seven states. For Sikkim, the new line project Sivok-Rangpo (44 km) was sanctioned.

The foundation stone of this project was laid by the then Railway Minister at Sivok (West Bengal) on 30 October 2009 and at Rangpo (in Sikkim) by the then Vice President on the same day.

Out of total length of 44.96 km, 38.65 km (86 per cent) is in tunnels, 2.24 km (5 per cent) in bridges and 4.79 km (9 per cent) length in open cutting/filling of station yards.

The proposed line consists of 14 tunnels with the longest tunnel of 5.30 km and the smallest tunnel covering 538 metres.

Five stations including Sivok and Rangpo are planned on the proposed railway line. Four stations are proposed to be open crossing stations - Sivok, Riyang, Melli and Rangpo and one underground halt station at Teesta Bazar.

The tunnelling which is about 86 per cent of the total length is constructed by the latest technique called NATM (New Austrian Tunnelling Method).

The work of this project is supervised by the international consultants so that the safety and quality is ensured. IRCON is taking all the measures so that there is minimum disturbance to the environment and forest.

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