Travelling to the Himalayan state of Sikkim and even places like Kalimpong and Teesta Bazar in West Bengal are likely to become a lot easier, safer and reliable with the completion of the Sivok-Rangpo Railway Project next year.
What was once considered a distant terrain is now being threaded together with the ambitious Sivok-Rangpo railway project, signaling not just connectivity, but a new era of commerce, mobility, and integration for India’s northeastern frontier, especially the state of Sikkim.
Construction of the 44.96 km Sivok-Rangpo line is under progress and targeted for completion by December 2027, providing the first railway connectivity to Sikkim.
The historic railway project will put the Himalayan state of Sikkim on India’s railway map. The Sivok-Rangpo line is a 44.96 km broad-gauge railway project connecting Sivok in West Bengal and Rangpo in Sikkim. The project features 14 tunnels and 23 bridges. It is built at a cost of over Rs 7,800 crore and targeted for completion by December 2027, officials said.
The Sivok-Rangpo line was planned mostly through tunnels and bridges because of the steep Himalayan mountains and deep valleys and is expected to provide reliable connectivity to Sikkim which is currently dependent on National Highway 10 for essential supplies and tourist movements.
The National Highway 10 or NH-10, the main road link often faces closures and traffic disruptions due to road damage, heavy monsoon rains, and landslides near vulnerable stretches. Road sinkage into the Teesta River also is a major reason for frequent and prolonged blockages on NH-10.
Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang told NDTV, “I want to thank Centre and the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on behalf of the people of Sikkim. As you said, the National Highway today is in a better shape than it was earlier when it was under the erstwhile West Bengal government and there were a lot of problems then. Later the NHIDCL took over, and it came under Centre, Now there has been a lot of improvement since then”
“But after this if we start railway services then Sikkim will boom. There will be no disturbance and there will be no connectivity issue. A lot more tourists will visit Sikkim and investors will also come here. We cannot imagine the change it will bring and this railway link will really benefit Sikkim,” Tamang told NDTV.
The Sivok Rangpo-Railway project follows the same alignment as the NH-10 along the Teesta River but to eliminate the problem of falling boulders, blockages due to landslides, the railway link has been constructed using tunnels and bridges to ensure that the railways are a safer and more reliable option.
The challenging railway project includes five stations including Sivok, Riyang, Melli, Rangpo (Sikkim) and an underground halt station at Teesta Bazar which are coming up in the ecologically sensitive and landslide-prone Himalayan terrain.
Last month, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Railways headed by Rajya Sabha member C.M. Ramesh, and comprising of 18 members, including 12 Lok Sabha members and six Rajya Sabha members reviewed the progress of the strategically important project.
The MPs inspected the Rangpo railway station site where a massive and challenging slope stabilisation has taken place along with Tunnel No 14 – the final tunnel of the project – to assess the ongoing construction and understand the engineering challenges associated with the ambitious railway project.
Apart from more reliable railway connectivity, road infrastructure is also undergoing a massive upgrade with new highways and improvements to existing ones. To address the challenges of landslide and land instability that has seen frequent closures of NH-10 between Singtam and Rangpo, a permanent solution is being worked by the NHIDCL.
NHIDCL has prepared and submitted a Detailed Project Report (DPR) to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, proposing the construction of tunnels along the Rangpo-Singtam stretch of NH-10.
According to officials, the proposed tunnels will range from 60 metres to 750 metres in length and are expected to make the highway immune from landslides on the sensitive stretches once approved and implemented.
In order to ensure there is accurate and timely information available to travellers and locals using NH-10, the Kalimpong Police in West Bengal have also launched an app that gives live updates to travellers helping them plan their journeys better.
Kalimpong District’s Superintendent of Police told NDTV, “This app was born out of a lot of discussions between me and a person from the Krishi Vigyan Kendra here, Dr. Subrata Manna. We all keep discussing the problems the hills are facing as he has also been here from a long time, and I am obviously from the hills. This NH-10 is a recurring problem which is happening not only for us but for everybody who is travelling through the highway. The first question that everybody has in the morning is whether NH-10 is open or not. We wanted to find a solution to this problem and Dr. Manna came up with the solution that we should have a mechanism through which we should keep informing the people about the status of the road”.
“And who is better than the police to do that? Because we are on the road 24×7. Then we launched this app on the occasion of Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee’s birthday and people have really liked this app and till now we have around 7500 downloads since July 06,” Rai added.
He said the highway is a lifeline for everybody in Sikkim, Kalimpong and even for people who want to use the Teesta Road and stay in the Jorethang side of Sikkim. “It’s important not just for traders but even for military purposes it has huge strategic importance. And even for tourism. Sikkim is now a very major tourist hotspot and even Kalimpong itself is a tourist hotspot. Even for tourists headed to the Lamahata side of Darjeeling this road feeds a tourist hotspot. And it goes all the way to our strategic borders also. So, the NH-10 is the most important national highway for Sikkim and that’s why the need was more for this app or this solution,’ Aparajita Rai told NDTV.
Apart from the improvements to highway, several alternate routes are also being developed to ensure disruption-free road connectivity to Sikkim and the India-China border in the state.
National Highway 717A is being built by NHIDCL to provide an alternative to NH-10. The two-lane Highway from Bagrakote to Pakyong (NH-717A) (152 km) in Sikkim will follow a separate alignment. Last year, the Centre allocated a sum of Rs 770 crore widen and upgrade NH717A, for better connectivity to the India-China border in Sikkim.
NH-717A will become a 2-lane highway with paved shoulders in West Bengal and Sikkim. With critical slope protection works, it will become a climate-resilient alternative to NH-10.
Apart from that, National Highway 210 (NH-210) is coming up as a 23-kilometer alternate highway corridor in Sikkim running parallel to NH-10 on the opposite flank of the Teesta River, connecting Melli and Singtam through Mamring and Samardong. It serves as a vital parallel route to ease traffic pressure when the main Rangpo-Singtam section of NH-10 faces blockages or weather disruptions.
Road connectivity is also being strengthened with the construction of the Rongli-Menla road which is a 93-kilometer highway project along National Highway 717B in East Sikkim spanning from Rongli Bazar to Menla near the Indo-China border.
