India just finished its longest railway tunnel: Know how
India just wrapped up its longest railway tunnel—a massive 14.57km stretch between Devprayag and Janasu in Uttarakhand—12 days ahead of schedule.
This tunnel is a big piece of the Rishikesh-Karnaprayag Rail Link Project, which is expected to boost travel and growth in the region.
Even though the whole rail line opens in December 2026, the tunnel itself was completed on April 16, 2025.
Teamwork, tech, tenacity
Tunnel boring machine operators Baljinder Singh and Ram Avtar Singh Rana faced some wild Himalayan challenges, including a major landslide that forced their German-made TBM "Shakti" to work at full power.
With support from a dedicated team of 200—the first time this tech was used for railways in the Himalayas—they contributed to the completion of a parallel downline tunnel (13.09km) after finishing their upline tunnel, showing just how much teamwork went into pulling off this engineering win.