Tunnel breakthrough achieved in Sikkim railway project

sanjay Agarwal

RANGPO,: IRCON International Ltd on Wednesday achieved the milestone of breakthrough of Tunnel No. 14 of Sevoke-Rangpo rail project at Rangpo subdivision, East Sikkim.
This is the first breakthrough of the tunnel on this project, which has been done in presence of officers from Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR), IRCON International Limited and construction agency Abir Infrastructure Pvt Ltd. along with representatives from Sikkim government.
The length of Tunnel No. 14 is 1977 m and located in between Kumrek and Khanikhola in East Sikkim. The tunnel traverses through vulnerable and challenging geological conditions of the lesser Himalaya.
To counter the vulnerability of the groundmass, the latest and most sophisticated tunneling technology , New Austrian Tunnelling Method or NATM has been adopted. Not only the top class and well experienced engineers from India, but also the highly experienced foreign engineers are also involved in this project. This was a much-awaited moment, as there were many hindrances from geological problems to the pandemic of Covid-19.   
This Sevoke-Rangpo rail link project is about 45 km long and is characterized by 14 tunnels, 17 bridges and 5 stations. About 38 km of the entire project alignment is passing through tunnels and about 36% of tunneling work has already been completed. At present all the activities related to construction of tunnels, bridges and stations on this project are in progress on a war footing basis and targeted to complete by December 2023.