NEW DELHI, APRIL 29: India may finally have an answer to China’s rail link to Tibet. Inspired by the rail link to Lhasa in their backyard, the Himachal Pradesh government is now planning one right through Manali into Leh. The state’s Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has written to the PMO to help develop the virtually non-existent rail infrastructure in the strategically important state and has suggested that a broad gauge rail link be created right up to Ladakh. A Noida-based organisation involved in infrastructure projects has already come forward to help execute the project and it is learnt that both the Defence Ministry and the Ministry of Railways have granted their approval in principle.

In a letter to the PMO, Dhumal has pointed out that the Chinese rail connectivity into Tibet can be a security threat for India and it must be countered with a strengthened rail network in Himachal Pradesh and China border areas. The CM has also asked for revival of the project to broad gauge the163 km-long Pathankot-Jogindernagar section. The project was shelved due to the supposedly high cost of Rs 1,000 crore for conversion from narrow gauge to broad gauge. Now Dhumal has suggested it be reviewed for strategic purposes and the feasibility of the link joining the proposed Bhanupalli-Barmana-Manali rail link also be examined.

The minister has written that with this rail link ‘the prime objective of achieving the defence requirements would go a long way in negating the Chinese superiority and will simultaneously open the unexplored Himachal, Leh and Ladakh’. He has argued in his letter that ‘national security’ concerns should override cost concerns for the project.

The Noida-based organisation involved with several infrastructure projects is in touch with the Himachal Pradesh government and proposes to undertake on Build, Operate Transfer (BOT) basis the project to lay a broad gauge railway line connecting Jogindernagar to the Kullu valley and extend it right up to Lahual, Spiti and Leh via Keylong. The group estimates that a new broad gauge would be laid along the 575 km-long Joginder Nagar-Manali-Keylong-Sarchu-Leh section at a cost of Rs 65, 000 crore. There will be some 60 km of tunneling along this section along the Rohtang/Baralacha /Tanglala passes. It is estimated that it will take almost 18 months to prepare a Detailed Project Report (DPR) and almost five years to complete the project.

The railway link is envisaged as an all-weather corridor that will serve defence purposes in a big way since there is heavy defence traffic along the sector. The Noida-based organisation had initially approached the Himachal Pradesh government on the issue in 2006 and the latter had shown interest in it following which the organisation has also independently approached the PMO and the Ministry of Railways.