Haryana Rail Infrastructure Development Corporation (HRIDC), a JV of Ministry of Railway (MoR) and Government of Haryana (GoH) is executing the Haryana Orbital Rail Corridor Project (HORC), which is a 126 km double line Rail project extending from Palwal to Sonipat via Manesar, Sohna and Kharkhoda.
The HORC project also involves construction of a 4.7 km twin tunnel suitable for running Double Stack Container trains. With a height of 9 m, the HORC tunnel is cross-section wise one of the largest Rail tunnel in the soil strata. The contract for the tunnel has been awarded to RVNL, a PSU under the Ministry of Railways. For expediting the completion of tunnel, which is long lead and critical component of HORC project, tunnelling has been planned from multiple faces and at present work is in progress parallely from 5 different faces for each of the twin tunnel (total 10 faces).
With tunnelling from multiple faces, a significant and critical milestone is when excavating ends from opposite faces meet and segments of tunnel get merged. This aspect for tunnel is termed as a ‘Breakthrough’. In a significant milestone Breakthrough for Tunnel-1 was successfully achieved between face 5 and 7 on 23/02/2026. Breakthrough for other faces are also planned in coming months. The work is in full swing for both tunnels and tunnelling is expected to be completed by Dec-27.
