The longest railway tunnel in India will come up on the Jiribam–Tupul–Imphal new broad gauge railway line. It will be 11.55 km long, more than the famous Pir Panjal tunnel on the Banihal-Qazigund line. The 111-km long Jiribam–Tupul–Imphal new broad gauge railway project was taken up in 2008 and was declared a National Project owing to its importance.
On this stretch, the 12.5 km Jiribam to Dholakhal section has been completed and commissioned for freight train in March 2016. For the 84 km Jiribam–Tupul section, 25 out of 37 tunnels have been completed by April end this year. Yet another feature of this stretch is the fact that the world’s tallest girder rail bridge will be constructed over Iring river, with a pier height of 141 metres. This, the Indian Railways says is almost equal to two Qutub Minars stacked over each other.
Indian Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu today laid the foundation stone of the proposed Imphal railway station, and also announced the commencement of work for the longest rail tunnel in India.
The proposed Imphal railway station is located about 13 km from the centre of Imphal, in Yurembam village. Its distance from the airport is 1.5 km. According to Indian Railways, the overall cost of construction of the station Building will be roughly Rs 8.7 crore. The station will also boast of a maintenance shed and will serve as the termination point for all trains. It will have three passenger platforms.
According to the recent report,the expansion of rail connectivity in the entire North-East will be top priority. That rail connectivity to North-East is big on the government’s agenda has time and again been reiterated by PM Narendra Modi. In the North East, the Indian Railways has commissioned about 900 kilometres of Broad Gauge in the last two years, leaving only about 50 kilometres Meter Gauge lines to be converted in 2016-17.
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