Union Minister of Railways, Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu on Saturday formally announced commencement of the work of the longest tunnel of Indian Railway on the Jiribam–Tupul–Imphal new broad gauge railway line and laid the foundation stone of the proposed Imphal Railway Station at Yurembam village, located 8 km from Manipur’s Capital, Imphal.
The Railway Minister created a history on Sunday as the proposed tunnel on the Jiribam –Tupul–Imphal stretch will be the longest tunnel of Indian railway covering 11.55 km (tunnel no. T-12). It may be mentioned here that the
111-km long Jiribam –Tupul–Imphal is no less an engineering marvel due to the two striking feature — the first is the tallest bridge of the world being constructed over Irang river with a pier height of 141 metres (almost equal to two Qutub Minar stacked over each other) and the second is the tunnel No. 12 with a length of 11.55 km, which would be the longest tunnel in India.
“Connectivity is the prime driver of development and the Railway Ministry would not spare any resources for bringing in speedy development of rail connectivity in the region,” said the Union Minister while addressing an impressive gathering at the proposed site for the new railway station.
“Indian Railways have taken a holistic approach towards development and the 111-km long new broad gauge railway line from Jiribam to Imphal and this will not only connect Imphal to the rest of the country but also open up new vistas for economic development of the region,” he said adding that the proposed Imphal railway station has been designed incorporating the architectural elements of Kangla Fort Gate and Shri Govindji Temple — two historical monuments of Manipur.
While announcing the commencement of the work of tunnel No 12, the Union Minister said that the tunnel would connect two parts of Manipur by rail but would also be a symbolic representation of the State getting connected to the Indian mainland.
Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh, who was also present on the occasion thanked the Indian Railway’s initiatives for bringing in better connectivity to the region and requested the Central Government to consider extending the railway line to Moreh from Imphal.
It may be mentioned here that The 111-km long Jiribam –Tupul–Imphal new broad gauge railway project was taken up in 2008 and was declared a National Project because of its importance. The 12.5–km Jiribam to Dholakhal section has been completed and commissioned for freight train in March 2016. On the 84–km Jiribam — Tupul section, out of the 37 tunnels, 25 have been completed as on 30th April 2016 and the works for the rest are also progressing well.
The overall cost of construction of the station Building will be around `8.7 crores. It will be terminating station with all facilities including three passenger platforms and coach maintenance shed.