A new record has been made by the Indian Railways in the development of the Rishikesh – Karanprayag Rail Line Project. Chief Minister of Uttarakhand – Pushkar Singh Dhami, in a tweet, shared that the team working on Rishikesh – Karanprayag Railway Line Project has created a new record by completing 1,012-meter NATM (New Austrian tunneling method) tunneling between Shivpuri to Byasi in just 26 days. The record has been achieved by the team L&T despite geographical conditions.
In April 2022, the Minister of Railways, Communications and Electronics & Information Technology – Ashwini Vaishnaw, in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha stated that Rishikesh – Karanprayag new line project was sanctioned in the budget in 2010-11. The anticipated cost of the project is Rs 16,216 crore, out of which an expenditure of Rs 6,618 crore has been incurred to date. An outlay of Rs 4200 crore has been allocated in the financial year 2021-22.
Rishikesh-Karnaprayag Rail Project
The Rishikesh – Karanprayag railway line project is a 125.20 km single-track railway line, that will run from Yog Nagari Rishikesh railway station in Rishikesh to Karanprayag. It is Indian Railways’ proposed route for the Char Dham Railway to connect to the Chhota Char Dham for the pilgrimage to Uttarakhand.
The project is touted to create 2000+ jobs and will reduce the travel time between Rishikesh and Karanprayag from 7 hours to just over 2 hours. The project is considered to be of national strategic importance and is being tracked on the Central Government’s PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation) portal. When ready, it will help improve connectivity to the Char Dham shrines of Yamunotri, Gangotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath in the Garhwal region of the Himalayas.
