Indian Railways connectivity boost in Uttarakhand! New 125-km broad gauge line from Rishikesh to Karnaprayag

The broad gauge rail line will promote tourism, trade as well as provide Indian Railways’ connectivity between five districts of the state. (image: Rishikesh tourism) 

Big Indian Railways boost in Uttarakhand! Indian Railways is laying a brand new broad gauge rail line in the northern state of Uttarakhand. In a bid to make train journeys comfortable and convenient for pilgrims, the new broad gauge railway line is being laid from yoga nagri Rishikesh to Karnaprayag in Uttarakhand. Besides making train travel easier for pilgrims, the broad gauge railway line is expected to play an important role in the development of the state. According to Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, this broad gauge rail line will promote tourism, trade as well as provide Indian Railways’ connectivity between five districts of the state.

According to details shared by the Railway Ministry, with this new railway line, devotees will be able to easily travel to all the holy shrines located across the region. The rail line will also connect to the new trade centre. The 125 km long broad gauge rail line will pass through various prominent places, connecting Devprayag, Srinagar, Rudraprayag, Gauchar, Karnprayag, Dehradun, Tehri Garhwal, Pauri Garhwal, Rudraprayag and Chamoli.

The broad gauge rail line project will have 12 new railway stations, 17 tunnels as well as 16 bridges. An amount of Rs 16,216 crore is likely to be spent on this railway line. According to the Railway Ministry, the upcoming broad gauge rail line in Uttarakhand will be completed by December 2024.

Earlier this year, the Railway Minister in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha informed that his ministry has planned to electrify balance broad gauge routes of Indian Railways network by December 2023. The electrification target of balance broad gauge routes of Indian Railways is 6,000 route km in 2019-20, 6,000 route km in 2020-21, 6,000 route km in 2021-22, 6,500 route km in 2022-23, 4,310 route km in 2023-24 (up to December 2023). Thus, the national transporter eyes to electrify 28,810 route km in total.