Rishikesh-Karnaprayag with 16 main tunnels, 12 escape tunnels to be completed by…, it is India’s longest…

Rishikesh Karnaprayag Rail project: A significant progress has been made in the Rishikesh Karnaprayag Rail project in Uttarakhand, with 9 of 16 mainline tunnels and eight of 19 major bridges completed. Spanning 125 km, the railway will enhance connectivity to Char Dham. The longest tunnel (T8) will be India’s longest at 14.59 km. 12 new stations are also under construction.

It is set to become the country’s longest transport tunnel, surpassing existing rail and road tunnels in Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. The breakthrough marks a major step forward in a project aimed at improving connectivity and reducing travel time in Uttarakhand’s hill districts.

The line will connect pilgrimage sites, promote tourism, support local businesses, and reduce travel time significantly. Towns like Devprayag, Srinagar, Rudraprayag, Gauchar, and Karnaprayag will be directly linked, touching five districts: Dehradun, Tehri Garhwal, Pauri Garhwal, Rudraprayag, and Chamoli.

Building this tunnel in the tough Himalayan terrain is a major engineering achievement. The Rishikesh-Karnaprayag project features 16 main tunnels (104 km), 12 escape tunnels (97.72 km), and 7.05 km of cross passages, totalling an impressive 213.57 km of tunnels. Out of this, 195 km has already been constructed.

This project also marks the first successful use of a Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) by Indian Railways in the Himalayan region. The TBM bored 10.4 km, while the rest was completed using the New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM).

The tunnel excavation wasn’t easy. Engineers had to deal with weak rock formations, heavy overburden up to 800 meters, and limited geological data. In some sections, water inflows of up to 2,000 litres per minute made the work even more challenging.

Along with the tunnels, the railway line includes 19 major bridges, 5 important ones, and 38 minor bridges. Major structures over the Chandrabhaga and Alaknanda rivers are already completed. Infrastructure like a road overbridge (ROB), road underbridge (RUB), and three major road bridges have also been built to support the project.

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