A tender worth Rs 6.15 crore has been floated by the northern railways to carry out repairs on the world heritage Kalka-Shimla railway line which sustained severe damage due to the heavy rainfall and landslides in the region earlier this month. The railway track has been closed till August 6 in order to carry out immediate repairs on it and the surrounding areas. The tender expects detailed repairs to be made which would fix the damage caused by rainfall, landslides and fallen trees on the track, The Indian Express reported.
As per the tender, among the works that the track will see is slope protection and landslide monitoring system, tunnel grouting, bridge rehabilitation and replacement of retaining walls. The deadline of the tenders is August 10 and the work is expected to be completed within 45 days of being awarded.
Kalka-Shimla Railway
The Kalka-Shimla Railway was built in the mid-19th century. It is a 96-kilometre-long, narrow gauge single track working rail link. It was built to provide rail service to Shimla. This heritage rail route passes through Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. Its construction was planned at an altitude of over 2,000 metres. Constructing about two-thirds of the entire line’s length in mountainous terrain was challenging and required a great deal of engineering design work. The track was finally completed at the turn of the century (1899-1903).
It runs from Kalka, at an altitude of 656 metres, from where it extends the standard gauge railway network to the Himalayan range.
The line passes through three districts in two Indian states. Section 1 is from Kalka station to just before Taksal (3.7 kilometres), in Panchkula, Haryana. Section 2 is from Taksal to near Kathlee Ghat (74.2 kilomteres) in Solan, Himachal Pradesh. Section 3 then goes from Kathlee Ghat to the end of line at Shimla, Himachal pradesh.
This rail line has 988 bridges and viaducts, representing 3% of the line’s total length. It also has 917 curves, representing some 70% of total length. Initially, the line had 107 tunnels, which now have been reduced to 102 due to landslides.