Jalpaiguri: Indian Railways have begun the final location survey (FLS) to lay a new railway line between Gangtok and Nathu La. This comes after the FLS for Rangpo to Gangtok (34.7km). Work on this railway line is expected to start in two years.Work to connect Bengal’s Sevoke to Sikkim’s Rangpo is in full swing, and railway officials said trains will start running in that stretch by March 2027.The total project is 44.96 km, of which 41.55 km falls in Bengal and 3.41 km in Sikkim. There will be five stations, Sevoke, Riyang, Teesta Bazar, Melli and Rangpo, in the section.There are 14 tunnels and 13 bridges required on the Sevoke-Rangpo railway line, which the Indian Railway Construction Company (IRCON) International Ltd is laying on behalf of Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR).Alipurduar DRM Devendra Singh inspected works on Wednesday, including layouts, passenger amenities, yard planning and safety compliance.“Only two tunnels are left to be dug in full. Then track-laying will begin. We expect to make the line between Sevoke and Rangpo functional by March next year. Work, however, will continue for the remaining part. Once completed, Nathu La will be the first place along the Sino-India border to have train connectivity,” an NFR official said.Although work for providing rail connectivity was sanctioned for Sikkim way back in 2008-09, the work could not make much headway due to various environment-related issues as the proposed railway line passed through the Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary. It was only in 2018 that work began on this.“The project was largely hit due to the Covid pandemic from 2020 to 2022. Then it’s always difficult to work in such hilly terrain, especially during the monsoons when landslides occur regularly. We had to be extra careful, resulting in the delay in the process of laying the track,” the official said.
