In a major milestone the 2nd longest tunnel no. T-01(4224 meters long) to the Adit of the Sivok – Rangpo Rail Project (SRRP), located in Darjeeling District of West Bengal, achieved a breakthrough on 27th February, 2024. With the tunnel breakthrough, mining activities have been successfully accomplished in all the Adit tunnels of this project.
The length of the Main Tunnel of T-01 is 4224 meters, along with an Evacuation Tunnel of length 855 meters situated near the Coronation Bridge in Darjeeling District, West Bengal. The Main Tunnel traverses through vulnerable and challenging geological and seismic conditions of the Younger Himalayas. Like all other tunnels in the SRRP, to counter vulnerability of the ground mass, latest and most sophisticated tunneling technology, i.e., New Austrian Tunneling Method (NATM) has been used here.
The Sivok – Rangpo new rail link project connecting Sivok (West Bengal) and Rangpo (Sikkim) is about 45 kms long and is characterized by 14 nos. tunnels, 13 major bridges, 09 minor bridges and 5 nos. stations. The length of the longest tunnel (T-10) is 5.3 km and length of longest bridge (Br-17) is 425 meters. About 38.65 kms of the entire project alignment is passing through tunnels. 91.59 % of the tunneling work has already been completed.
At present final lining has been completed in tunnel T-14 & T-09 and is under progress in tunnel T-02, T-03, T-05, T-06, T-07,T-10, T-11 and T-12. Total 10.89 km lining has been completed till date. Work in all sections is being carried out round the clock 24×7. This is one of the most prestigious ongoing National Projects in India and on completion of this project, first time the state of Sikkim will be connected via railways. This rail network on its completion is aimed to provide alternate connectivity to the state of Sikkim. At present all the activities related to construction of tunnels, bridges and station yards are going on war footing for early completion of the project.