Char Dham railway line: An uphill task in face of geological challenges

RVNL ready to build a curtailed link: that would mean the Indian Army will have to cover a longer distance to the China border by road.

Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) has decided that it should go ahead with the proposed line to Badrinath in spite of the massive geological challenges. However, the implementing agency for the Rs 73,000 crore Char Dham rail project wants to end the line at Pipalkoti, about 35 km before the originally proposed culmination at Joshimath. 

Badrinath is the most crucial leg of the Char Dham project, which seeks to connect four holy Hindu shrines, the other three being Gangotri, Yamunotri and Kedarnath. In addition to aiding pilgrims’ progress, the Badrinath line is meant to provide faster access to the China border for the Indian army, specifically to the crucial border outpost of Mana.

Ending the line at Pipalkoti will mean the army will have to cover a longer distance to the China border by road than it would have needed to had the rail link gone up to Joshimath. The pilgrims, too,will have to travel an additional two hours by road to reach the shrine at Badrinath.

The Indian railways did not respond to Business Standard’s email seeking comments and clarifications.

The route to Badrinath, as the link to Kedarnath, is an extension of the Rishikesh-Karnaprayag line. The under-construction line is to be extended till Saikot, from where it was meant to go in two separate directions. One was to be towards Sonprayag, the terminating station for the Kedarnath shrine--a line the RVNL does not want to build. The other line from Saikotwill go towards Badrinath.

In 2014, RVNL commissioned a reconnaissance survey that said the railway line could be taken up to Joshimath, using the 1:80 alignment, with a station built at an elevation of 1,733 meters--a lower altitude than the town’s. A final location survey commissioned in 2018, submitted recently, suggested the station at Joshimath be built further down at 1,654 meters.

However, the RVNL found that taking the railway line up to Joshimath would not be feasible. One of the constraints it cited was that the strategic line wouldn’t be able to serve the army’s purpose if the line terminated at Joshimath, which does not have an adequate “open area for defence facilities”. The inadequate space also means the railways will not be able to maintain its own carriage and wagon depot.