Union Minister for Railways, Information & Broadcasting and Electronics & Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, on Saturday announced an array of railway infrastructure projects. Among them was the ambitious underwater twin‑tube tunnel under the Brahmaputra.
Vaishnaw said that the Union Cabinet cleared a massive infrastructure push led by an underwater twin‑tube tunnel under the Brahmaputra, hailing it as a “transformational moment” for connectivity in the North‑East and across India.
The decisions were unveiled at an official press conference, in which the railway minister showcased major details of various projects—both road and rail—that totalled a massive Rs 1,60,504 crore.
Brahmaputra underwater tunnel: cutting 6 hours to 20 minutes
The centrepiece of the press briefing was the twin‑tube road‑cum‑rail tunnel between Gohpur and Numaligarh in Assam, India’s first underwater twin‑tube tunnel combining both modes.
The 4‑lane underwater tunnel section will be 15.8 km long, within a total project length of 34 km across Golaghat and Biswanath districts, with an estimated cost of Rs 18,662 crore and a construction period of five years.
Vaishnaw said the project would slash the distance between Gohpur and Numaligarh from 240 km to just 34 km and cutjourney time from about six hours to 20 minutes, while doubling average travel speed.
The tunnel is pitched as a high‑speed connectivity lifeline for Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, boosting tourism, border connectivity and cross‑border trade, and generating an estimated 80 lakh human‑days of employment.
New 3rd and 4th lines for key rail corridors
Alongside the tunnel, the Cabinet approved several capacity‑expansion rail projects, including the third and fourth lines in three key corridors: Delhi–Ambala, Kasara–Manmad in Maharashtra, and Ballari–Hosapete in Karnataka.
Delhi–Ambala 3rd and 4th line
Route length: 194 km
Project duration: 4 years
Cost: Rs 5,983 crore
Infrastructure: 1 important bridge, 28 major and 178 minor bridges, 2 road overbridges, 79 underbridges, 415 km of track.
Benefits include more passenger and freight trains, support to power plants and warehouses, better links to destinations like Vaishno Devi, and additional freight capacity of 24.6 million tonnes per year, with expected CO₂ savings of 43 crore kg annually and 132 lakh human‑days of employment.
Kasara–Manmad 3rd and 4th line
Route length: 131 km; track length: 316 km
Cost: Rs 10,154 crore.
Infrastructure: 3 important, 16 major and 218 minor bridges; 5 ROBs; 21 RUBs; 5 tunnels, the longest about 24 km.
This corridor is expected to remove the need for banking engines on Kasara–Igatpuri gradients, add 46.1 million tonnes of freight capacity annually, save 54 crore kg of CO₂ a year (equivalent to planting 2.2 crore trees), cut logistics costs by about Rs 1,207 crore per year and create roughly 89 lakh human‑days of work.
Ballari–Hosapete 3rd and 4th line
Route length: 65 km; track length: 149 km
Cost: Rs 2,372 crore
Project duration: 4 years.
Infrastructure: Includes 34 major and 220 minor bridges, 11 ROBs and 14 RUBs, strengthening a key freight‑and‑passenger link on the Vasco da Gama–Vijayawada high‑density network.
Other major projects that Vaishnaw presented included the four‑laning of key highway stretches, Noida Metro Aqua Line extension, an Urban Challenge Fund and Startup India Fund of Funds 2.0, among others, taking the total approvals to Rs 1,60,504 crore.
