India's first railway-station inside tunnel to come up in HP
What's the story
For the first time in India, a railway station will be built inside a tunnel at a height of 3,000m, on the strategic Bilaspur-Manali-Leh line close to the Sino-India border.
While many metro stations in Delhi and other cities are inside tunnels, once completed, the Keylong station in Himachal Pradesh will be the first on Indian Railways' network to be inside a tunnel.
Details
More similar stations to come after Keylong project: Northern Railway
Keylong is the administrative center of Lahaul and Spiti district, 26km north of Manali and 120km from the Indo-Tibetan border.
"The Keylong station, in the project, will be inside the tunnel according to the first phase of the location survey...When the final surveys are completed, there could be many such stations on the route," DR Gupta, Chief Engineer (Construction), Northern Railway, said.
Connecting locations
Here are the locations the line will connect to
Keylong station will be at a height of around 3,000m and will be inside a 27km-long tunnel.
The line once completed will connect all important locations between Bilaspur and Leh like Sundernagar, Mandi, Manali, Keylong, Koksar, Darcha, Upshi, and Karu and other towns of HP and Jammu and Kashmir.
It's important because it can facilitate in the movement of goods to the frontier areas.
Project
Project to include 124 major and 396 minor bridges
The project will include 74 tunnels, 124 major bridges, and 396 minor bridges, according to the first-phase of the survey.
"Once finished, the line will halve the duration taken to cover the distance between Delhi and Leh, from 40hrs to 20hrs," said an official.
The final location survey is expected to be completed in 30 months. Then, a detailed project report will be finalized.