Railways expands tracks by 31,180 km
By TIOL News Service
NEW DELHI, JULY 27, 2024: THE Railway projects are surveyed/sanctioned/executed Zonal Railway-wise and not State/area-wise/district-wise as the Railway projects may span across state boundaries. Furthermore, Railway Infrastructure Projects are taken up on the basis of remunerativeness, last mile connectivity, missing links and alternate routes, augmentation of congested/saturated lines, socio-economic considerations etc. depending upon liabilities of ongoing projects, overall availability of funds and competing demands.
Presently, 651 no. of surveys (New line, Gauge Conversion and Doubling) having a total length of 49,983 km have been taken up on Indian Railways under PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan (NMP) for the development of multimodal connectivity infrastructure to various Economic Zones with an objective to have integrated planning, enhanced logistics efficiency and remove gaps for seamless movement of people, goods and services including connectivity to industrial clusters, ports, mines, power plants, tourist and cultural places, agricultural zones etc.
As on 01.04.2024, across Indian Railways, 488 Railway Infrastructure projects (187 New Line, 40 Gauge Conversion and 261 Doubling) of total length 44,488 Km, costing approx. Rs 7.44 lakh crore are in planning/approval/construction stage, out of which, 12,045 Km length has been commissioned and an expenditure of approx. Rs 2.92 lakh crore has been incurred up to March, 2024.
Zone-wise and Year-wise details of all Railway projects including cost, expenditure and outlay are made available in public domain on Indian Railways website.
The Average Annual Budget allocation for New Line, Gauge Conversion and Doubling Projects across Indian Railways is given below:
|
Period
|
Average Outlay
|
Increase w.r.t. average allocation of 2009-14
|
|
2009-14
|
11,527 crore/year
|
-
|
|
2024-25
|
68,634 crore
|
Nearly 6 times
|
The details of commissioning of New Lines, Gauge Conversion and Doubling sections across Indian Railways is given below:-
|
Period
|
Total Length Commissioned
|
Average Length Commissioned
|
Increase w.r.t. average commissioning during 2009-14
|
|
2009-14
|
7,599 km
|
4.2 km/day
|
-
|
|
2014-24
|
31,180 km
|
8.54 km/day
|
More than 2 times
|
Uttar Pradesh
Railway projects in Uttar Pradesh are covered by Northern Railway, North Central Railway, North Eastern Railway, East Central Railway and West Central Railway zones of Indian Railways.
Presently, 70 no. of surveys (17 New line and 53 Doubling) having a total length of 4814 km have been taken up which fall fully/partly in Uttar Pradesh under PM Gatishakti National Master Plan.
As on 01.04.2024, 68 Projects (16 New Line, 03 Gauge Conversion and 49 Doubling) of a total length 5,874 km, costing Rs 92,001 crore, falling fully/partly in Uttar Pradesh are in planning/approval/construction stage, out of which 1313 Km length has been commissioned and an expenditure of Rs 28,366 crore has been incurred upto March, 2024.
Average Budget allocation for Infrastructure projects and safety works, falling fully/ partly in Uttar Pradesh is as under:
|
Period
|
Average Outlay
|
Increase in outlay w.r.t. average allocation of 2009-14
|
|
2009-14
|
Rs 1,109 Crore/year
|
-
|
|
2023-24
|
Rs 17,507 Crore
|
About 16 times
|
|
2024-25
|
Rs 19,848 Crore
|
About 18 times
|
The details of commissioning of New Lines, Gauge Conversion and Doubling sections falling fully/partly in the state of Uttar Pradesh is as under:
|
Period
|
Total Length Commissioned
|
Average Length Commissioned
|
Change w.r.t. average commissioning during 2009-14
|
|
2009-14
|
996 km
|
199.2 km/Year
|
-
|
|
2014-24
|
4,902 km
|
490.2 km/Year
|
About 2.47 times
|
In 2023-24, 1752 Km track has been commissioned.
The completion of any Railway project(s) depends on various factors like quick land acquisition by State Government, forest clearance by officials of forest department, deposition of cost share by State Government in cost sharing projects, priority of projects, shifting of infringing utilities, statutory clearances from various authorities, geological and topographical conditions of area, law and order situation in the area of project(s) site, number of working months in a year for particular project site due to climatic conditions etc. and all these factors affect the completion time and cost of the project(s).
This information was given by the Minister of Railways, Information & Broadcasting and Electronic & Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha yesterday.
