The Indian Railways is all set to ink a formal collaboration with Swiss firms for tunneling works for its marquee projects
The Marquee projects include Rishikesh-Karna Prayag New Railway Line and the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL)
Earlier last month in January, Ashwini Vaishanav mentioned that Indian Railways is set to collaborate with the Swiss railway through a MoU
Vaishanav also highlighted Switzerland’s achievements in tunneling technology, exemplified by the world’s longest 57-km Gotthard tunnel.
He stated that Indian Railways has the potential to learn from Switzerland, citing their expertise in the hub-and-spoke model and tunneling technology.
It is noteworthy that Swiss railways work on an innovative track structure called Hub-and-Spoke design
The Hub-and-Spoke design is a transportation or network configuration where a central hub is connected to various spokes or outlying destinations
The Hub-and-Spoke design is a transportation system aims to efficiently manage the flow of passengers or goods.
While India maintained its commitment to end-to-end connectivity, Switzerland’s system operates around the Hub-and-Spoke model