Infrastructure
Northeast Infra: Rail Connectivity To Sikkim Gets Fast-tracked
Indian Railways (Wikimedia Commons)
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.
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.
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.
