Indian Railways took another step towards connecting the North East with the rest of India through a good railway network  – by laying the foundation for Imphal station and announcing commencement of work on the country’s longest rail tunnel as well as world’s tallest girder rail bridge.

The tunnel will be built on the Jiribam-Tupul-Imphal new broad gauge railway line in Manipur. The 111-km long line already has 37 tunnels on it.

• The new tunnel will be 11.55 km long, more than the famous Pir Panjal tunnel on the Banihal-Qazigund line.The Pir Panjal railway tunnel in J&K.
• Another striking feature on the stretch will be the construction of the world’s tallest girder rail bridge over Iring river. The bridge, with a pier height of 141 metres, will be almost equal to two Qutub Minars stacked on top of each other.

• At present, the Malarijeka via-duct in Montenegro, Europe, with a height of 139 metre is the highest such rail bridge, the official said. , Declared as a National Project in 2012, the Jiribam-Tupul-Imphal project has already missed two deadlines, with the revised target for completion now fixed at 2022.

• We however want to complete the Jiribam-Tupul 84-km section by March 2016 in the first phase. This portion will require 1,310 hectares of land out of which work is in progress in 1,263 hectares. There will be 112 minor bridges and six major bridges, out of which 52 minor bridges have been already completed,” the NF Railway official said.