(Image source from: Financialexpress.com)

India had completed building world’s first electrified rail tunnel which is capable of running double stack container trains in Sohna, Haryana.

Tunnel breaking ceremony has marked the completion of the tunnel caving work at one kilometer long tunnel through Aravallis near Sohna in Haryana.

This will mark the world’s first electrified rail tunnel which will be fit to run double stack containers. The news was confirmed by Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India in a statement.

In the next 12 months, the rail tunnel will be operational in the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor confirmed the officials.

Once the electrified rail tunnel becomes operational, double stack container goods trains will be able to run at a speed of more than 100 Km/hr from within this tunnel in Sohna.

On Friday, the two parts of the electrified tunnel were added after a blast at the zero point of the tunnel.

The entire work has been completed within a span of one year according to the statement released by the officials.

The rail tunnel is claimed to be safe and secure as it is caved through 2500 to 500 million year old Proterozoic rocks mainly comprised of Quartzite, schists and slates of Alwar and Azabgarh groups of Delhi super rocks which have the highest bearing capacities among all other rocks.

The rail tunnel connects the Mewat and Gurugram of Haryana and negotiates a steep gradient on the Aravalli range’s uphill and downhill slopes.

The tunnel is D-shaped and has a cross sectional area of 150 square meters which will easily enable the passage of double stack container goods train with higher over head equipment (OHE).

In terms of cross sectional area, this rail tunnel of Haryana is the biggest railway tunnel ever built in the country. One end of the tunnel is near Rewari and the other end lies at Dadri.

The dimension of the tunnel is 14.5 meters and height is 10.5 meters straight to the top and 15 meters wide and 12.5 meters in height to provide that extra clearance that a train needs while crossing the curve.

What is Double stack rail transport?

Double stack rail transport is a form of transportation where containers are stacked in two layers on rail road cars. This type of transport is already in use in many countries across the world including Australia, the US and UK.

By Gayatri Yellayi