Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approves India’s first underwater road-cum-rail tunnel under Brahmaputra river

Key facts

• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved India’s first underwater road-cum-rail tunnel to be built under the Brahmaputra river in Assam.
• The 33.7-km long project includes a 15.8-km twin tube tunnel under the river and will be developed at a cost of ₹18,662 crore in Engineering Procurement Construction (EPC) mode.
• The tunnel will connect Gohpur on NH-15 and Numaligarh on NH-715, reducing the distance between the two Assam cities from 240 km to 34 km and travel time from six hours to 20 minutes.
• The project alignment integrates with Rangia-Mukongselek Railway Section under Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) on Gohpur side and Furkating-Mariani loop line section under Tinsukia Division of NFR on Numaligarh side.
• The Cabinet also approved three Railways multi-tracking projects at a cost of ₹18,509 crore and three highway projects at a cost of ₹11,079 crore.