New Sikkim Railway Project
The foundation stone for construction of a new railway line from Rangpo to Sevoke railway station on the border of Sikkim with West Bengal was laid in October 2009 by Vice President of India. In 2008, the track was proposed to be 53 km long. However, the 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in) broad gauge track finally may be 45 km long, 1 km of which will be in Sikkim state and the rest in West Bengal state. 32 km of the track will be in tunnels with almost equal number of bridges on deep gorges and valleys with proposed 65 km per hour speed limit. Five new railway stations will be constructed at Melli, Tista Bazar, Geilkhola, Riang and Rangpo. The track will be constructed through the foothills of Kanchanjungha mountain range and Teesta river valley and will offer very beautiful views.
The new railway line will be beneficial not only to people of Sikkim for easier access to the rest of India through Siliguri but also the Indian army for movement of troops and support to the border with Tibet. It will boost the state's economy and tourism.
In 2008 the project was planned to be completed in 2015 at estimated cost of INR 33 billion but is likely to be delayed like most projects of Indian Railways as the construction started only in 2010. The Indian Railways signed a contract with the construction company, IRCON, only in May 2010 and the work has been progressing at a very slow pace as the final alignment had not been fixed even in 2011 and the final clearance of environment ministry had not been received by 2011.
The railway line may be extended from Rangpo to Gangtok at a suitable time.
Read more about this topic: Rangpo
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