Darjeeling, 24th February: Darjeeling MP Raju Bista and Darjeeling MLA Neeraj Zimba Tamang conducted an inspection in the Sivok-Rangpo Railway Line Construction Project, on Monday. The duo also held talks with the officials of the Ministry of Railways.
The Sivok-Rangpo Railway Line is considered to be an engineering marvel as it will cut through mountains and valleys to connect Sikkim to the main Indian railway network for the very first time. The route will enable traveling to Rangpo in Sikkim in just two hours.
However, the work on the project has been sluggish since a memorandum was signed between the West Bengal government and then Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee way back in 2009. This was mainly due to difficulty in acquiring land clearances from villagers. Nevertheless, in 2017, the railways started construction in Rangpo and the rest in Lohapool.
The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) zone along with IRCON International Limited, has proposed to construct the 44.98 km long Sivok Rangpo railway line which will pass through tunnels and bridges. The stretch will have 14 tunnels, 14 major bridges and eight minor ones and five stations – Sivok, Riyang, Teesta Bazar, Melli, and Rango. Teesta Bazar will be an underground railway station.
Sivok and Rangpo are joined by a single road route and traveling over this route is considered to be very tough as it mostly shuts down during monsoons due to landslides, huge traffic jams, and many other reasons. However, the Sivok-Rangpo Railway Line will come as a blessing in disguise for the people and tourists in this area.