Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 24 Jul: Union Railway Minister, Information and Broadcasting Minister and Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw today addressed media persons of Uttarakhand in the context of Railway Budget presented by the Modi Government. This press conference was held on a virtual basis where select journalists from Uttarakhand were present at the Press Information Bureau (PIB) Office in Dehradun while the Union Minister was present in Delhi. During the press conference, Viashnaw expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that this time a record budget of Rs. 2.62 lakh crore has been allocated to the Railways. Vaishnaw also thanked the Union Finance Minister for this allocation.
Addressing the journalists, Vaishnaw claimed that Uttarakhand will also get the benefit of record budget allocation. The Railway Minister said that Uttarakhand has been allocated Rs 5,131 crore in the budget for various rail projects in the FY 2024–25 budget. With this budget, the rail network in Uttarakhand will be strengthened significantly. Sharing the updates regarding the Central Government’s highly ambitious ongoing Rishikesh-Karnaprayag rail project for Char Dham, Vaishnaw informed that this project has 213 km long tunnels, out of which 171 km long work on tunnels has been completed already. The balance work is underway at a rapid pace. He said that the two Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) being used to build tunnels in the Rishikesh-Karnaprayag Rail project have been named ‘Shiva’ and ‘Shakti’. He said that the work of this project will be completed by mid-2026 and it will be a record in itself that such a big and complex project will be completed in a very short time and that too on the young mountains of the Himalayas, where many huge challenges have to be faced.
Ashwini Vaishnaw added that since the Himalayan mountains are still young, soil content as compared to the hard rocks are found in the Himalayas which makes it difficult to build tunnels in the hills. Therefore, Himalayan Tunneling Method i.e. HTM has been invented to build tunnels in the Himalayan mountains, through which tunnels can be built within the young mountains of the Himalayas. A balanced tunnel is built through HTM.
Addressing the media persons, Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the work of making DPR of Bageshwar-Tanakpur, Bageshwar-Gairsain, Rishikesh-Uttarkakshi and Saharanpur railway lines in Uttarakhand is also continuing and soon updates on this will also be shared with the Uttarakhand media.
Responding to the question regarding safety of Rishikesh-Karnaprayag Rail Project, Vaishnaw claimed that the railway tunnels being built in the Himalayan state are being built with very advanced state of the art technology. He said that in areas where there are no solid stones, tunnels are being built using the Himalayan tunnelling method, in which along with tunnel boring, the walls are strengthened by concrete, which makes the tunnel safe. Apart from this, instructions have also been given to all the concerned officials to do every work very carefully from the security point of view while constructing the tunnel.
In response to another question, Vaishnaw also shared that between 2014 and 2024 since Modi Government came to power, 69 km of new rail tracks have been laid in Uttarakhand while 303 km of railway lines have been electrified in the same period. He reminded that between 2009-14 during the UPA era, not a single km of new rail line was added in Uttarakhand nor there was enough electrification of rail lines in the state. Now, every railway line in the state has been electrified. He also shared that 70 rail bridges and under bridges have been constructed in the state during the ten year rule of Modi Government. At present, work on 3 rail projects (railway track) of 216 km is going on in the state, the cost of which is Rs 25,941 crore. He added that 11 Railway Stations in Uttarakhand are being developed as model stations called as Amrit Stations and they include Dehradun, Haridwar Junction, Harrawala, Kashipur Junction, Kathgodam, Kichha, Kotdwar, Lal Kuan Junction, Ramnagar, Roorkee and Tanakpur.
