Railway unveils ₹16,216-cr rail line in Uttarakhand

Indian Railways has decided to build a 125-km long Rishikesh-Karnaprayag new broad gauge rail line in Uttarakhand, which will not just boost tourism, trade and connectivity among five districts of the state but will also make train journeys comfortable for general rail users including for those visiting holy places located across the region. The line will pass through many famous places that will be connecting Devprayag, Srinagar, Rudraprayag, Gauchar, Karnprayag, Dehradun, Tehri Garhwal, Pauri Garhwal, Rudraprayag and Chamoli. The Rishikesh-Karnaprayag line will have 12 new railway stations, 17 tunnels, 16 bridges and is destined to be commissioned by December 2024. The Railway ministry has planned to electrify balance broad gauge routes of Indian Railway network by December 2023. The electrification target is 6,000 route km in 2019-20, 6,000 route km in 2020-21, 6,000 route km in 2021-22, 6,500 route km in 2022-23, 4,310 route km in 2023-24 (up to December 2023) thereby electrifying 28,810 km routes in all.