Indian Railway Construction International Limited IRCON, has achieved another milestone on Monday by completing the final Concrete lining in Tunnel No. 14 of Sevoke Rangpo Rail Project.
The tunnel is about 1977 m long and is situated in the Rangpo Sub-Division under Pakyong District. Last year in the month of February, the milestone of mining breakthrough of this tunnel was achieved and completion of final concrete lining of 1977 m long tunnel within one year is a marvellous achievement by the engineers involved in this project.
In March 2023, the Minister of Railways, Communications, Electronics and Information Technology Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw also inspected this tunnel and appreciated the work. Finally, the auspicious occasion of completion of final concrete lining has been marked as a significant event in the history of this project. Shri B.K. Gupta, Additional Member Civil Engineering, Railway Board and Chairman Cum Managing Director of IRCON International Limited with other higher officials of Northeast Frontier Railway, IRCON International Limited and construction agency M/s. Abir Infrastructure Pvt Ltd.
The mining of this tunnel was completed last year in the month of February, which was marked as first breakthrough of tunnel in SRRP and now this also achieved the credit of being the first in completion of final concrete lining. The tunnel is located in between Kumrek and Khanikhola in East Sikkim region and traverses through challenging geological conditions of the Lesser Himalaya.
New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM) has been adopted for the completion of tunnel through challenging and vulnerable groundmass with the supervisions of well experienced engineers from India along with highly experienced foreign engineers in this project. The track linking works will be next activity going to start through this tunnel very soon. Rangpo Station situated just after the Tunnel No. T-14 is also under construction and on completion will be a commercial and tourism hub for the State of Sikkim. This railway project will enhance the standard of socio-economic status of the state.
This new rail link project from Sevoke to Rangpo is about 45 kms long and is characterised by 14 nos. tunnels, 22 nos. bridges and 5 nos. stations including an underground station at Teesta Bazar, W.B. About 38.62 kms of the entire project alignment is passing through tunnels, accounting for about 86% of the entire alignment. As on date about 76% of tunnelling work has already been completed.
The mining work has been completed at 6 tunnels completed and many are on the verge of completion of mining. Till date 29.3 Km tunnel mining has been completed and final concrete lining is in progress. At present all the activities related to construction of tunnels, bridges and stations on this project are in progress on war footing basis and targeted to complete by December 2024.
During his maiden visit of Sevoke – Rangpo BG Rail line Project from 13.05.23 to 15.05.23, Shri B.K. Gupta, AM/CE, Railway Board and Chairman cum Managing Director, IRCON International interacted with the media persons at Rangpo. He briefed the media about the challenges of the project due to difficult terrain, poor geological strata of lesser Himalaya. He informed that N. F. Railway and IRCON are putting all efforts to complete the project Dec/2024 deadline given by Hon’ble Minister of Railways.
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