New Delhi: The Sivok-Rangpo railway line project will connect Sikkim to the national rail network for the first time. This will establish rail connectivity between Sikkim and West Bengal. The project is expected to be operational by 2027.
Arun Kumar Chaudhary, General Manager (Construction) of North Eastern Frontier Railway and Hari Mohan Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director of Ircon International Limited, while informing the progress in the project, said that so far the construction of major components such as 14 tunnels and 23 bridges has almost been completed. At the same time, he also mentioned various challenges affecting the speed of the work.
According to the railways, the nearly 45-km Sivok-Rangpo line, with 41.5 km in West Bengal and 3.5 km in Sikkim, will connect the Himalayan state to the national rail network. After the completion of the project, the development of strategic infrastructure will play a significant role in improving socio-economic conditions, providing better access and strengthening national integration.
According to the railways, this connectivity will significantly reduce travel time, boost tourism and facilitate trade and commerce. Railways is committed to completing this important project on time to ensure that the benefits of improved rail infrastructure reach the people of West Bengal and Sikkim at the earliest.
According to the latest data from the Rajya Sabha, the Siwok-Rangpo new line project has been launched in the first phase to connect it to the Indian rail network (Rangpo falls 40 kilometres before Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim). The cost of the project is Rs 11,973 crore. As of March 2025, Rs 8,358 crore has been spent on the project. An outlay of Rs 2940 crore has been provided for 2025-26. The project is one of the most challenging new railway line projects as its terrain passes through the Himalayas, which is full of geological wonders and myriad problems.
“The section mainly involves tunnel construction of 39 kilometers out of the 44-kilometer length,”” the data said.” So far, the 32-kilometer tunnel construction has been completed. The completion of the railway project/projects depends on many factors such as prompt land acquisition by the State Government, clearance from Forest Department officials, transfer of infringinging utilities, statutory clearances from various authorities, geological and topographical conditions of the area, and law and order status at the site of the project/projects, number of months working in a year at a particular project site. All these factors affect the time and cost of completion of the project/projects.
According to the Ministry of Railways, the foundation stone of the project was laid by the Ministry of Railways in 2009 at Sivok (West Bengal) and Rangpo (Sikkim) on the same day. Of the total 44.96 km length, 38.65 km (86 per cent) is in tunnels, 2.24 km (5 per cent) in bridges and 4.79 km (9 per cent) in open cutting/filling of station yards length. The proposed line has 14 tunnels, with the longest tunnel being 5.30 kilometers and the shortest tunnel 538 meters long.
