Indian railways plan to connect New Delhi with Ladakh region through the world's highest railway line that will run along the India-China border. The national transporter plans to build a strategically important Bilaspur-Manali- Leh line along the Indo-China border.
The location survey of the first phase is complete. Besides giving quick all-weather access to the armed forces, the railway line will also boost tourism in the scenic Ladakh region that is currently connected by road and air. The Ladakh-Himachal region receives heavy snowfall and road and air connectivity are sometime affected due to bad weather. The estimated cost to build this 465 km-line will be Rs 83,360 crore. The rail line will have a highest road point of 5,360 metres above mean sea level that is comparable only to the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Line in China, which is at a height of around 2,000 metres. The project will include 74 tunnels, 124 major bridges, and 396 minor bridges. There would be 30 stations along the line.
Keylong station on the route will be build inside a tunnel at a height of 3,000 metres, a first in India. More than half of the train route would be covered through tunnels, the longest of which would be 27 km long. Total length of the tunnels would be 244 km. The route will connect important locations between Bilaspur and Leh like Sundernagar, Mandi, Manali, Keylong, Koksar, Darcha, Upshi, and Karu, and other important towns of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. Once finished the line will reduce the duration taken to cover the distance between Delhi and Leh by a whopping 50 percent - from presently 40 hours to 20 hours. The final location survey is expected to be completed in 30 months’ time after which a detailed project report will be finalised.
