Indian Railways has made its major groove by working on the prestigious Sivok – Rangpo rail line project (SRRP) as it has completed the construction of tunnel number 11 (T-11). This is the sixth breakthrough of a total 14 tunnels in the project.
The T-11 is the longest tunnel to date of the Sivok-Rangpo rail project. The length of the main tunnel is 3,205 metres and the Evacuation Tunnel is 960 metres. The tunnel is located in between Tarkhola and Tumlangkhola area of Kalimpong district in West Bengal.
This is one of the highly prestigious ongoing railway projects in the country. After its completion, Sikkim will be connected via rail network for the first time. The rail link project connects West Bengal’s Sivok with Sikkim’s Rangpo.
The Sivok-Rangpo rail project is about 45 kms long, which is featured with 14 tunnels, 22 bridges and 5 railway stations. Nearly 38 kms of this Sivok- Rangpo rail line project is passing through the tunnels and so far 67 per cent of the tunneling work has been completed.
The work on the Evacuation Tunnel, connecting National Highway 10 and the Main Tunnel number 11, was completed in December 2022. The mining work in the tunnel was started in February 2020 after completion of approach roads and portal developmental work on both sides.
The construction of the tunnel is a challenging task for the engineers. The main tunnel traverses through vulnerable, challenging geological and seismic conditions of the Himalayan areas. In a bid to counter the vulnerability of the groundmass, the NATM or New Austrian Tunneling Method was followed.
The railways is working on a war footing basis to complete the activities related to the construction of tunnels, bridges, station yards and other projects at the earliest.