Char Dham Railway

The Char Dham Railway is a strategic Himalayan railway under construction in Uttarakhand — a 327 km alignment connecting Rishikesh to Karnaprayag (the existing terminus of the broad-gauge Rishikesh line) and onward to Joshimath, providing rail access to the four Char Dham pilgrimage sites: Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath, and Badrinath. The project was sanctioned by the Modi government in 2014 as a flagship strategic + religious-tourism initiative.

The project's defining feature is its tunnel-intensive alignment: ~75% of the 327 km route is tunnel (245 km of tunnels), making it among the most tunnel-intensive railways under construction globally. The remaining 82 km is on bridges + viaducts. The design accounts for the Garhwal region's challenging geology (active landslide zones from Joshimath subsidence onwards) and Zone IV-V seismic exposure.

Indian Railways executed the project across 17 packages, with IRCON leading the construction and Megha Engineering, L&T, and Adani Group sharing major packages. Total project cost: ₹43,000 crore (2024 estimate).

Key engineering features: 17 stations along the route, 38 km of the alignment running parallel to the Char Dham Highway, integration with the Rishikesh-Karnaprayag line at Devprayag (already partially operational), design loading for both pilgrim passenger trains + military strategic supply traffic to forward Indo-China border posts in Joshimath/Niti Pass region.

The project has been politically significant: like the parallel Char Dham Highway, it has faced Supreme Court environmental challenges, particularly after the 2023 Joshimath subsidence event. Modified construction techniques + real-time slope-monitoring sensors have been added to mitigate landslide risks. Target completion 2027.