3300 CRORES RAIL PROJECT WORK STARTS

SIKKIM: Work starts on Sikkim link

sILIGURI Feb. 24: The construction of a new railway link connecting north Bengal to Sikkim has begun with Ircon International Limited, a public sector undertaking incorporated with the Indian Railways, starting work on the 44km stretch between Sevoke and Rangpo two years after the plan was mooted.

The general manager of the Northeast Frontier Railway, Shiv Kumar, and senior officials of the railways and Ircon, attended the ground-breaking ceremony at Rangpo on the Bengal-Sikkim border on Saturday.

Ircon sources said the estimated project cost is around Rs 3,300 crore.

Ircon’s general manager, eastern region, Anil Kumar Gupta, said engineers were already working on the access roads to reach the proposed track alignment. “The terrain is a challenging one and we have to first reach the areas through which the railway line will pass. After that, we will be able to conduct a survey and arrive at the final estimate,” Gupta said.

He said Ircon had experience in constructing railway lines in Jammu and Kashmir.

“An estimated 70 per cent of the total stretch to Sikkim will have to be either through tunnels or viaducts in order to make progress through one hill to the other, spanning deep gorges. The viaducts will have to be constructed on high pillars,” the general manager said.

The project will take five years to complete once the funds are sanctioned. The first railway link to the Himalayan state will help boost the state’s economy as well as its economic mainstay, tourism.

Senior officials of the NFR said after the Sevoke-Rangpo track laying is completed by 2015, there are plans to take the link up to Gangtok.

“The railway connectivity to Sikkim is important as the India army has deployment along the border with China in the state. The railway line will vastly improve troop movement as they will not have to rely solely on the state’s only road link with the rest of India, NH31A,” an official said.