News Brief
Char Dham Rail Project In Uttarakhand: Final Location Survey Over, Next Steps Await DPR Finalisation
(Clockwise from top-left): Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri.
The Indian Railways is making headway on its ambitious Char Dham rail connectivity project aimed at linking the sacred shrines of Gangotri, Yamunotri, Kedarnath, and Badrinath in Uttarakhand to the national railway grid.
The project has two alignments — (i) Doiwala-Uttarkashi-Barkot which will serve Yamnotari and Gangotri shrines (ii) Karnaprayag-Saikot-Soneprayag- Joshimath will serve Kedarnath and Badrinath shrines.
According to the Rail Ministry, the Final Location Survey (FLS) for the Char Dham rail project has been completed.
"The Final Location Survey of Chardham Project- connectivity link to Gangotri, Yamunotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath with Indian Railways has been completed," Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday (6 August).
The project, once approved, is expected to significantly enhance religious tourism and improve strategic connectivity in the fragile Himalayan region.
It added that project sanctioning is a “continuous and dynamic process” and exact timelines cannot be fixed.
As a precursor to this project, the Rishikesh–Karnaprayag new rail line—which overlaps with the proposed Badrinath–Kedarnath corridor—is already under construction.
Spanning 125 km, the project has progressed through extremely difficult terrain across five Uttarakhand districts and involves over 210 km of tunneling.
So far, 199 km of tunneling has been completed, including the breakthrough of the 14.8 km Tunnel T-8, a first in Himalayan geology using Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs).
