Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has announced significant progress in the 125-km RishikeshKarnaprayag railway project, with 13 out of 16 mainline tunnels and nine out of 12 escape tunnels completed.

The project, traversing the rugged Himalayan terrain, spans Dehradun, Tehri Garhwal, Pauri Garhwal, Rudraprayag, and Chamoli districts in Uttarakhand. Once operational, it will connect key religious and tourist destinations in the hill state with Rishikesh and Delhi, enhancing both accessibility and regional development.

A notable feature of the alignment is that 84 per cent of the route lies within tunnels, with 105 km of mainline tunnels and 98 km of escape tunnels. To speed up progress, eight adits were strategically developed to create additional excavation faces. "Works of all 8 Adits have also been completed," the Minister confirmed.

Tunnel T8, India’s longest railway tunnel at 14.59 km, achieved a breakthrough in April. So far, 199 km of tunneling out of the total 213 km have been completed. The work is being executed using advanced technologies and strict ecological safeguards to minimise environmental impact.