Indian Railways is building the world’s highest railway line and prepares to connect New Delhi with the Ladakh region.
Along the Indo-China border, the national transporters will a build a strategically-important Bilaspur-Manali-Leh line.
Following are the main attractions of this strategic railway line:
Highest in the World
As compared to the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Line in China with around 2,000 metres height, this railway line will have the highest road point of 5,360 metres above sea level.
Station Inside a Tunnel
Keylong station will be constructed inside a tunnel at 3,000 metres height, a first in India.
Over half of the train route will be covered all the way through tunnels.
The total length of the tunnels will be 244 km.
Connecting The Dots
Some important locations will be connected in the route between Bilaspur and Leh like Mandi, Sundernagar, Koksar, Manali, Karu and Upshi and other towns of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.
From Delhi to Leh in 20 hours
Once the railway line is finished, it will reduce the time duration to half (i.e. 20 hours) to cover the current distance which is 40 hours.
A detailed project report will be finalized after the final location survey is done which is likely to be completed in 30 months.
Cost of Project
The valuation to build the 465 km-line is estimated at Rs. 83,360 crore.
124 major bridges, 396 minor bridges and 74 tunnels are included in the project, according to the first survey phase.
A total of 30 stations will be on the line.
