Manipur’s Jiribam–Imphal railway project makes progress amid odds

Guwahati: The works for Jiribam–Imphal new line railway project is going on in full swing to connect Imphal, the capital city of Manipur, with the rest of the country.

The Jiribam–Imphal new line railway project is one of the crucial connectivity projects in Northeast India that is at an advanced stage of completion.

The route of the project will cover 11 railway stations; six of them are completed. The anticipated cost of the complete project is around Rs 14,322 crore. The section from Jiribam to Khongsang has already been commissioned and the entire project is targeted to be completed by December,2023.

“Construction of the Jiribam–Imphal new line railway project is of about 110 km in length. It involves multiple tunnels and bridges in tough terrains,” said a senior official of Northeast Frontier Railway.

Out of 52 tunnels, tunnel no 12 is the longest in this project with a total length of 10.275 km, including a 529 metre RCC Ramp with a parallel safety tunnel of length 8.30 km.

“Tunnel no 12 is passing through the most complex geological region having fragile soil type condition,” the official said.

Tunnelling work in this stretch is one of the most challenging jobs and NF Railway is working through the challenges like heavy rainfall and other logistical hindrances.

“The vertical shaft construction technology has been adopted for the first time in NF Railway history, for these complex tunnelling works. Normally this technology is used only in the Metro Projects. Considering the complex geological condition of Imphal valley and to reduce the construction time of balance tunnelling stretch, vertical shafts are being constructed. This will help in expediting the progress of the tunnel work,” the official said.

All the tunnelling activities will be done through vertical shafts with the help of Gantry Crane and other modern machineries.

“The railway has taken up tunnelling work in a big way with the successful completion of high altitude and mountainous tunnels in Jiribam-Imphal project,” he added.  

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