The most challenging work of the completion of the tunnel from Devprayag, from where emerges the pious Ganges after the confluence of Alaknanda and Bhagirathi rivers has been almost completed in which the Rail from Rishikesh to Karnaprayag will ply when the entire project takes the final shape after successful completion.
This underground tunnel in Garhwal hills of Uttarakhand measuring 14.57 kilometres will be the first of its kind in which the unique TBM technology was used in 10.57 kilometres stretch while primitive NATM technology used in rest of the four kilometres stretch.
This 14. 57 kilometres tunnel starting from Devprayag will be the longest tunnel in the country going up to Janasu , located in Srinagar Tehsil Garhwal , Uttarakhand.
The TBM technology is unique and outstanding as it excavates around 15 to 18 metres of tunnel every day though the work depends on the ground condition, nature of rocks, beneath and other factors.
On this particular tunnel it has made a world record of excavating 555 land area in a month said one of the engineers associated with this project hailing from Devprayag.
This machine is outstanding because while digging or excavating the tunnel, the Germany imported TBM machine automatically cements the tunnel giving it a final shape with very little work left to be done afterwards.
In the NATM technology the machine hardly excavates four to five metres distance daily and the entire renovation etc work is done afterwards inside the tunnel.
It may be recalled that the 125 line Railway Project from Rishikesh to Karnaprayag is 125 kilometres long being built to reduce the travel time to few hours and boosting tourism on a big scale enthusing locals as well as tourists from the pan India to global levels.
This railway route being on the route of several ancient historic destinations Kedarnath, Badrinath, Hemkunth Sahib etc including Devprayag, the place where two rivers confluence to make pious Ganges will be extremely busy not only generating enough budgetary income for the railways , boosting spiritual and other forms of tourism but will also help in repatriation to hills the people who have left Garhwal, Uttarakhand to cities towns and metropolises for job avenues and health facilities.
This project included sixteen main tunnels covering 105 kilometres out of the total distance of 125 kilometres and 12 escape tunnels.
The distance from Rishikesh would be confined to 2.5 hours which these days is approximately seven hours by bus or cars. However, during monsoons and the season of Ancient temple portals open due to heavy rush of cars, buses, tempo travellers and motorbikes the jams on roads is tremendous taking ten or more hours to reach Kedarnath.
The total project cost of this railway project is 16 to 17 thousand crores and the TBM and NATM machine being used in the tunnel excavation including the technological staff etc are from Germany.
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