14.57 km long rail tunnel in Uttarakhand completed ahead of schedule
The tunnel has been part of the ambitious 125-km Rishikesh-Karnaprayag Rail Link Project, which is executed by Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL) and is scheduled to be commissioned by December 2026.
The team has completed the longest tunnel in India, a 14.57 km stretch between Devprayag and Janasu in Uttarakhand, ahead of schedule. This completion has been achieved due to the perseverance of two tunnel boring machine (TBM) operators who actively participate in the grave conditions of the Himalayas.
The tunnel has been part of the ambitious 125-km Rishikesh-Karnaprayag Rail Link Project, which is executed by Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL) and is scheduled to be commissioned by December 2026.
As per the L&T officials, the tunnel is the first time a TBM had been deployed for a railway project in the Himalayas, and until now these machines were largely confined to hydroelectric tunnelling projects. In total, around 30 km of tunneling work, which includes main tunnels, escape routes, cross-passages, and niches, will be executed for this project, making it one of the most challenging infrastructure endeavors. Around 70 percent of the work has been carried out using TBMs, and the rest of the work is being executed with the drill-and-blast method, which is called the New Austrian Tunnelling Method.
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