India’s first underwater road-rail tunnels to be built across Brahmaputra

In a strategic move, the Railway Ministry, the Road Transport Ministry and the Border Road Organisation (BRO) are planning to construct country’s first underwater road-cum-rail tunnels across Brahmaputra river in Assam at an estimated cost of Rs 7,000 crore.

As per the plan, there will be three parallel tunnels — one for the road, another for rail and the third one for emergency use. Each tunnel will be 9.8 kilometres long and this will be the first project where integrated tunnel construction will be undertaken, said The Times of India. These tunnels will be inter-connected with cross passage for evacuation in case of any emergency.

Both civilian and strategic purposes

The strategic multi-modal transportation system aims to integrate the rail and highway network through the Jamurihat-Silghat axis towards North Assam, Tawang and the rest of Arunachal Pradesh. This can be used for both civilian and strategic purposes, the report said.

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According to the estimate, the government would spend around Rs 7,000 crore for these tunnels. Earlier, National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL), a company under the Road Transport Ministry, had proposed twin tunnels for vehicles and had estimated an expenditure of Rs 12,800 crore. Sources said the proposal prepared by the BRO and the Road Ministry has helped reduce the likely investment even after adding one more tunnel, the report added.

Will reduce travel time

The tunnel will take off from about 9 km upstream of the existing Kaliabhomora (Tezpur) road bridge and will connect Jakhlabandha railway station on the south bank and Dhaliabil railway station on the north bank of Brahmaputra.

The underwater tunnel project will be an engineering marvel apart from benefitting the country strategically by reducing travel time between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. Currently, there are five bridges across the Brahmaputra.

The proposed tunnels will be constructed using tunnel boring machines and may take around two to two-and-a-half years to complete.

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