For the first time in India a Railway Station to be built inside a tunnel. Keylong station on Bilaspur-Manali-Leh line close to the Sino-India border. India has multiple metro stations under tunnel but turning to the railway station, this will be the first.
Keylong station will be 26 km north of Manali and 120 km from the Indo-Tibetan border. Once the project gets completed, it will help our armed forces, as well as boost tourism. Due to this reason, the railway wants the project to be declared a national project. Not only this if announced so, major funding will also come from central government.
This is the most challenging project undertaken by the railways.
According to the first phase of the location survey the station will be built inside the tunnel. Not only this whole project will include 74 tunnels, 124 major bridges and 396 minor bridges — the 465-km line, to be made at the cost of Rs 83,360 crore.
Once the project gets completed, it will reduce travel time to half between Delhi and Leh which currently is 40 hours.
The project will be built at the highest point of 5360 metres above mean sea level and can only be compared to the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Line in China, which is at the height of around 2000 metres above sea level.
The final location survey is expected to be completed in 30 months, after which a detailed project report will be finalised.
