Indian Railways plan train to Sikkim

Bhaswaran

According to a report on The Times of India , June 29, 2007, Indian Railways is surveying the possibility of linking Sikkim with a railway line.

A broad gauge line is planned to be upto Rangpo now, connecting from Siliguri/New Jalpaiguri (NJP) via Sevok. The Sikkim Government asked the line to be extended upto Gangtok, the proposal which the Railways are considering.

Now, it is a 4-5 hours ride from Siliguri/NJP to Gangtok on mountainous road, which are prone to landslides. If the railway line is completed upto Rangpo, then it will only be a 1.5 hrs drive to Gangtok from there, apart from a boost to tourism and local economy, and less pollution.

This might be another welcome plan after the Rishikesh-Karnprayag and Tanakpur-Bageshwar extension plans. The Kashmir railway is also being executed at full steam.

India seems to be going on developing transport infrastructure after seeing their counterpart doing that in Tibet.

Bhaswaran

I cannot find the link in the net edition.

However , here are three more links:

http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/article...379608&sid=REG

http://www.telegraphindia.com/107041...ry_7644291.asp

http://in.news.yahoo.com/061201/43/69x5n.html

shashank.aggarwal

Thats good news..but they are still surveying..lets see what comes up..

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Sadanand Kamath

I have a feeling that NJP-Rangpo-Gangtok railway line will be completed early for strategic reasons.

Sadanand

steven_ber

I agree, also....Indian Railways are trying to connect most of the Capital cities in the North-East to their network, most of these new projects have been declared 'National Projects', this gives 2 advantages, I think half the money comes from the national government and these projects are seen as very important and given priority.

I could be wrong about the above, it's just what I understand from the railway articles I read.

But if it's all true, it would be hard for the railways to turn down the plan for a line into Sikkim, however, I read that the first bit of the line from Siliguri/NJP till Gillikhola had to be closed because it kept getting washed away in the monsoon.

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Bhaswaran

That was the narrow-gauge, the same as the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway built with old technology, dating years back. I hope the new broad gauge lines will not be easily effected, they might avoid landslide prone regions or simply tunnel through such places.

For example, although some minor problem arises sometimes, otherwise the Konkan Railway is pretty sucessfull in operating round the year. After the accident of the Matsyagandha Express, only speed restrictions are forced.


You are correct, especially for a boost in the trade with CHina through the Nathu-La pass and also for military reasons. For this narrow road is the only lifeline to Sikkim, and if it gets blocked, imagine what can happen. China is also known to have plans for an extension of its Tibet Railway from Lasha to the eastern side, probably somewhere close to Sikkim (I forgot the name of the town on the other side of the border)