The Rishikesh–Karnaprayag line is a 126 km long under-construction

railway line Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport, next to road ...

, connecting

Yog Nagari Rishikesh railway station Yog Nagari Rishikesh railway station (station code: YNRK) is a railway station serving the city of Rishikesh in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It lies in the Northern railway network zone of Indian Railways. History The train station opene ...

Rishikesh Rishikesh, also spelt as Hrishikesh, is a city near Dehradun in the Indian state Uttarakhand. The northern part of Rishikesh is in the Dehradun district while the southern part is in the Tehri Garhwal district. It is situated on the right bank ...

city in the Himalayan foothills

Sivalik Hills The Sivalik Hills, also known as Churia Hills, are a mountain range of the outer Himalayas. The literal translation of "Sivalik" is 'tresses of Shiva'. The hills are known for their numerous fossils, and are also home to the Soanian Middle Pale ...

Karnaprayag Karnaprayag is a town and municipal board in the Chamoli District in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. Karnaprayag is one of the Panch Prayag (five confluences) of Alaknanda River, situated at the confluence of the Alaknanda and Pindar River. ...

city in the Garhwal region in

Lower Himalayan Range The Lower Himalayan Range, also called the Lesser Himalayas and Mahabharat Lekh or Himachal, is one of the four parallel sub-ranges of the Himalayas. It has the Great Himalayas to the north and the Sivalik Hills to the south. It extends from t ...

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand (, ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2007), is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. The state is bordered by Himachal Pradesh to the n ...

state of India. It is the main feeder route to

Indian Railways Indian Railways is a state-owned enterprise that is organised as a departmental undertaking of the Ministry of Railways (India), Ministry of Railways of the Government of India and operates India's national railway system. , it manages the fou ...

Char Dham Railway The Char Dham Railway, the Indian Railways's under construction twin railway lines under Char Dham Pariyojana project by connecting the holiest places of Hinduism called Chota Char Dham, from the existing Doiwala railway station near Dehradun t ...

project which aims to connect the

Char Dham The Char Dham ( ), or the Chatur Dhama (), is a set of four Hindu pilgrimage sites in India, consisting of Badrinath, Dwarka, Puri and Rameswaram. Badrinath, Dwarka, and Puri are shrines of Vishnu, whereas Rameswaram is a shrine of Shiva. ...

pilgrimage shrines of

Yamunotri Yamunotri, also Jamnotri, is the source of the Yamuna River and the seat of the Goddess Yamuna in Hinduism. It is situated at an altitude of in the Garhwal Himalayas and located approximately North of Uttarkashi, the headquarters of the Utta ...

Gangotri Gangotri is a town and a ''Nagar Panchayat'' (municipality) in Uttarkashi district in the state of Uttarakhand, India. It is 99 km from Uttarkashi, the main district headquarter. It is a Hindu pilgrim town on the banks of the river Bha ...

Badrinath Badrinath is a town and nagar panchayat in Chamoli district in the state of Uttarakhand, India. It is a Hindu holy place, and is one of the four sites in India's Char Dham pilgrimage. It is also part of India's Chota Char Dham pilgrimage c ...

and

Kedarnath Kedarnath is a town and Nagar Panchayat in Rudraprayag district of Uttarakhand, India, known primarily for the Kedarnath Temple. It is approximately 86.5 kilometres from Rudraprayag, the district headquarters. Kedarnath is the most remote ...

. As part of an Indian geostrategic initiative to build infrastructure along the India-China border to discourage Chinese expansion, this rail line is of national strategic importance, which will cut down the travel time to 2 and half hours by railway from earlier 8 hours taken by the road.Uttarakhand: उत्तराखंड में पहाड़ों को चीरकर बन रहा रेल मार्ग, 125 किलोमीटर लंबा रूट 17 सुरंगों से होकर गुजरेगा
msn.com, 29 March 2025.

History

Satpal Maharaj Satpal Maharaj (born Satpal Singh Rawat, 21 September 1951) is an Indian spiritual guru turned politician. He is a national executive member of the BJP. Currently, he serves as the tourism, cultural, and irrigation minister in the cabinet of ...

began a survey for the project as Minister of Railways of

in 1996. The project's

foundation stone A cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry Foundation (engineering), foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entir ...

was scheduled to be laid by

United Progressive Alliance The United Progressive Alliance (UPA; Hindi: Saṁyukta Pragatiśīl Gaṭhabandhan) was a Political group, political alliance in India led by the Indian National Congress. It was formed after the 2004 Indian general election, 2004 general ele ...

chairperson

Sonia Gandhi Sonia Gandhi (, ; ; born 9 December 1946) is an Indian politician. She is the longest-serving president of the Indian National Congress, a big-tent liberal political party, which has governed India for most of its post-independence history. ...

on 9 November 2011. Alignment of the 126-kilometer-long railway project was completed in 2013, but the project was delayed by political wrangling. The detailed feasibility work finally began in 2015 under the leadership of

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician who has served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India since 2014. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Par ...

led

National Democratic Alliance The National Democratic Alliance (NDA; ISO 15919, ISO: ''Rāṣṭrīya Lokatāntrik Gaṭhabandhan'') is an Indian big tent Political group, multi-party political alliance, led by the country's biggest political party, the Bharatiya Janata Pa ...

government. Design contracts for tunnel and bridge construction were awarded in 2019. Italferr, the engineering arm of FS Italiane Group, received the contract for the design and supervision of the 12-km-long section (running almost entirely through tunnels) of the Himalaya Tunnel as part of a joint venture with Swiss firm Lombardi SA. That construction began in 2018. Work on the first

block section Absolute block signalling is a British signalling block system designed to ensure the safe operation of a railway by allowing only one train to occupy a defined section of track (block) at a time. Each block section is manually controlled by a ...

, from the Virbhadra railway station to , began in June 2018 and was completed in 2020.

Stategic importance

It will play a vital role in national security and the welfare of Uttarakhand, by reducing travel time between Rishikesh and Karnaprayag from 6-7 hours to hours. The line will serve pilgrims and local residents, and will be able to rapidly move troops to the India-China border.

Project features

This ₹16,200

crore Crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes the quantity ten million (107) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. In many international contexts, the decimal quantity is formatted as 10,000,000, but when used in the context of the India ...

project, with 35 bridges, and 105 km (85 percent) will run through 17 tunnels including 15.1-km

Devprayag Devprayag (Deva prayāga) is a town and a nagar panchayat, near New Tehri city in Tehri Garhwal District in the state of Uttarakhand, India, and is the final one of the Panch Prayag (five confluences) of Alaknanda River where Alaknanda meets ...

-Lachmoli tunnel which was reportedly India's longest tunnel in 2016.

Route

The Rishikesh–Karnaprayag line, which begins at station (385 m AMSL) and ends at

station (825 m AMSL) city, will have the following 12 stations (sequentially listed southwest to northwest direction) all of which are in Uttarakhand state. *

Dehradun district Dehradun district () is a district in Garhwal which is a part of Uttarakhand state in northern India. The district headquarters is Dehradun, which has also served as the interim capital of Uttarakhand since its founding in 2000. The district ha ...

** in

: since the railway line could not be extended from the

Rishikesh railway station Rishikesh railway station, station code RKSH, is a railway terminal station serving the city of Rishikesh in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It lies on Northern railway network zone of Indian Railways. It is no longer the only station in Rishik ...

(RKSH) in the city through densely-populated areas, a rail line was built from the

Virbhadra Virbhadra is a town in Dehradun district in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, located close to the pilgrimage town of Rishikesh. It is most known as the factory township of Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited, Rishikesh plant (IDPL), a Gove ...

station to the new

(YNRK). *

Tehri Garhwal district Tehri Garhwal is a district in the hill state of Uttarakhand, India. Its administrative headquarters is at New Tehri. The district has a population of 618,931 (2011 census), a 2.35% increase over the previous decade. It is surrounded by Rudra ...

** Muni Ki Reti *

Pauri Garhwal district Pauri Garhwal is a district in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. Its headquarters is in the town of Pauri. It is sometimes referred to simply as Garhwal district, though it should not be confused with the larger Garhwal region of which it is ...

** Shivpuri * Tehri Garhwal district ** Manjilgaon ** Sakni ** Devprayag ** Kirtinagar * Pauri Garhwal district ** Srinagar *

Nainital district Nainital district is a district in Kumaon division which is a part of Uttarakhand state in India. The headquarters is at Nainital. Nainital District is located in Kumaon Division, and is located in the lower Himalayas. Haldwani is the largest ...

** Dungripanth (Dhari devi) *

Rudraprayag district Rudraprayag is a district of the state of Uttarakhand of northern India. The district occupies an area of 1984 km2. The town of Rudraprayag is the administrative headquarters of the district. The district is bounded by Uttarkashi District ...

** Dhari *

Chamoli district Chamoli district is a district of the Uttarakhand state of India. It is bounded by China's Xizang Autonomous Region to the north, and by the Uttarakhand districts of Pithoragarh district, Pithoragarh and Bageshwar district, Bageshwar to the eas ...

** Gholtir ** Karnaprayag

Related connectivity

: Rishikesh–Karnaprayag line is a feeder line to the Char Dham Railway, the later has the following 4 sub-sections: **

Doiwala–Dehradun–Uttarkashi–Maneri Gangotri Railway The Doiwala–Dehradun–Uttarkashi–Maneri Gangotri Railway, notified as the project of national strategic importance, is Indian Railways's one of the four constituent routes of the proposed Char Dham Railway connecting the holiest Chota Char ...

***

Uttarkashi–Palar Yamunotri Railway The Uttarkashi–Palar Yamunotri Railway, notified as the project of national strategic importance, is Indian Railways's one of the four constituent routes of the proposed Char Dham Railway connecting the holiest Chota Char Dham of Hinduism. Th ...

, midway fork from the Gangotri Railway ** Karnaprayag–Saikot–Sonprayag Kedarnath Railway ***

Saikot–Joshimath Badrinath Railway The Saikot–Joshimath Badrinath Railway, notified as the project of national strategic importance, is Indian Railways's one of the four constituent routes of the proposed Char Dham Railway connecting the holiest Chota Char Dham of Hinduism. This ...

, midway fork from the Kedarnath Railway *

Char Dham Highway Char Dham National Highway, is an under construction two-lane (in each direction) 889 km long National Highway with a minimum width of 10 metres in the Indian state of Uttarakhand under Char Dham Pariyojana. The under construction highway wi ...

: will complement the Rishikesh–Karnaprayag line mostly along the same route * Parvatmala, ropeway project across India, including ropeways in some of the destinations of the Rishikesh–Karnaprayag line

Status

As of November 2024, 60% of the project's budget has been utilised with 70% work completed, with 28 of the 38 planned tunnel breakthroughs completed, and the remaining 10 are scheduled for breakthroughs by March 2025, 11 stations were under-construction.Rishikesh-Karnaprayag rail line likely to operate by 2026 end, officials say 60% of its budget utilised so far
Financial Express, 19 November 2024.Indian Railways’ Rishikesh-Karnaprayag BG rail line project: 11 stations under construction, 176 km of tunnel work completed
Financial Express, 19 Sept 2024. As of January 2025, the Phase-1 is likely to be completed by December 2026.
business-standard.com, 11 January 2025.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rishikesh - Karnaprayag Railway * Proposed railway lines in India Proposed infrastructure in Uttarakhand Rail transport in Uttarakhand Transport in Rishikesh