Work of construction of tunnels in full swing at Vyasi, Rishikesh n Raano Gauchar, Garhwal Uttarakhand

The work of railways from Rishikesh to Karnaprayag is in full swing these days and the construction work of rail tunnels at Raano in Gauchar and Vyasi in Rishikesh is in full swing.

The RNVL which had till last September not got the permission from the forest department at Dehradun later on got the clearence after the intervention of the union environment ministry.

Primarily given impetus by the then union minister of state for Railways at the centre during prime minister HD Devegowda’s tenure, it was two years ago that the prime minister of India Narendra Modi launched it with complete fanfare by announcing it in a mammoth public meeting in Dehradun alongwith the over ambitious 12.500 crore Char Dham Yatra project earlier known as the All weather roads.

Work on both the projects have been in full swing though in Rishikesh n other parts of Uttarakhand thousands of green old trees have been rampantly cut n are likely to be cut in future as well thus adversely affecting the already fragile environment of the Uttarakhand Himalayas.

Costing over 16, 500 crores the railway project from Rishikesh to Karnaprayag, the work on which has started on full swing with tunnels already under construction at Raano in Gauchar and at Vyasi at Rishikesh , the total length of the railway line would be about 125 kilometres with the track gauze measuring 1.676 mm.

The highest elevation of the project would be at 4, 760 feet. The maximum running speed of the trains would be about 100 kilometres per hour.

The rail links will connect pilgrims towns of Rishikesh, Devprayag, ( the confluence point of Alaknanda and Bhagirathi to finally make it the pious Ganges), Srinagar, Rudraprayag, Gauchar, Karnaprayag as well as the five districts of Dehradun, Tehri, Pauri Garhwal and Dehradun.

About eighty five percent of the rail line would be in the tunnels, whereas only 15 percent would be in the open.

The escape tunnels for rescue and operations would also be constructed simultaneously.

According to the sources the original cost of the project about six years ago was merely 4000 crores but due to the delay in the delivery of the forest clearence the cost of the project shot up to staggerring Rs 16500 crores which may further go upin the future .

The project will consist of about 25 bridges and there would be a longest tunnel of 15.1 kilometres between Devprayag and Lachmoli on the railway route considered to the longest tunnel in India.

In all there will be 12 stations and 17 tunnels on the way from Rishikesh to Karnaprayag. The project would by fully functional by 2024- 25.