Indian Railways to launch 58 critical, 68 super-critical projects worth over Rs 11,5000 crore

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New Delhi: Keeping in view the future requirements, the Indian Railways is ready to award 58 critical and 68 most-critical projects worth more than Rs 11,5000 crore in the next few years. Despite the challenges of COVID-19, Indian Railways is working expeditiously to complete the urgent projects to increase the capacity of the tracks.

In the last year, 29 critical projects with a total length of 1,044 km worth Rs 11,588 crore have been commissioned. Major projects were delivered in states like Assam, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Uttarakhand.

The Indian Railways has identified 58 very important projects with a total length of 3,750 km costing Rs 39,663 crore. Out of these 58 very important projects, 27 projects will be completed by December, 2021 while the remaining two projects will be handed over by March 2022.

58 critical projects with a total length of 3,750 km costing Rs 39,663 crore; and 68 important projects with a total length of 6,913 km costing Rs 75,736 crore have been commissioned. These projects of multi-tracking i.e. Doubling/Third Line/Fourth Line are on busy routes.

It may be noted that most of the traffic on the Indian Railways network runs on the Golden Quadrilateral, the high density network routes and the heavily used Indian Railway network routes. The high-density and heavily used network route accounts for 51 per cent of the route length of the Indian Railways network but carries 96 per cent of the traffic.

On the basis of traffic density, type of material to be carried, strategic importance of the route, projects requiring immediate expansion are classified as critical category (58 projects) including fast progressing projects (expenditure already exceeds 60 per cent). has been placed in. 

The projects which are to be completed in the next phase have been considered as critical projects (68 projects). These are all civil projects (related to electrification and signaling works).

With focused funding and constant monitoring, the target has been fixed for early completion of these projects so that the investment can be reaped. When completed, these projects will improve mobility, safety and create additional capacity for passenger and freight trains on these saturated and busy routes. High priority has been given to budget allocation for the identified projects to be completed soon.

MOST IMPORTANT PROJECTS:

58 projects with a total length of 3,750 km costing Rs 39,663 crore have been identified as very important. These very important projects are on busy routes of multi-tracking i.e. Doubling/Third Line/Fourth Line. On completion of these projects, Railways will be able to operate more traffic at higher speed with safety on these dense / saturated / busy routes. So far, 29 projects with a total length of 1,044 km costing Rs 11,588 crore have been commissioned. 27 projects will be completed by December, 2021 while remaining 02 projects will be completed by March 2022.

Important Projects:

68 important projects of total length 6,913 km costing Rs 75,736 crore have been identified and 04 projects of 108 km length costing Rs 1,408 crore have been completed so far and remaining projects are targeted to be completed by March 2024 has gone.

68 important projects: The estimated cost was Rs 75,736 crore of which 37,734 have been spent till March 21. The outlay for this year is Rs 14,466 crore. Till now 4 projects have been completed.

Indian Railways has commissioned 1,614 kms doubling / 3rd / 4th line during the financial year 2020-21 despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the pandemic situation, Indian Railways has so far commissioned 133 kms of Doubling/Third Line during the financial year 2021-22.

Indian Railways has given some major capacity building projects in states like Assam, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Uttarakhand. Some of them are as follows-

Assam: The commissioning of second line track on Narayan Setu on Brahmaputra river of New Bongaigaon-Guwahati section will bring great relief to this section.

West Bengal: 

a) In May 2021, Indian Railways has commissioned two doubling projects i.e. Katwa-Bazar Sau and Azimganj-Bazar Sau part in West Bengal despite the COVID-19 pandemic and state elections.

b) Katwa-Bazar Sau and Azimganj-Bazar Sau: Doubling of this line is very important considering the to and fro traffic of Bardhaman Sahibganj for movement of coal to NTPC TPS ie Farakka Thermal Power Station (under construction)

Maharashtra: In June 21, Indian Railways has started the very important project Bhusaval-Jalgaon third line in Maharashtra, which will remove the bottleneck in this section and will provide much relief to train service operation in Mamad-Khandwa and Bhusaval-Udhna sections.

Uttarakhand: 

Haridwar-Luxor doubling: . The entire route of this section from the national capital New Delhi to Haridwar via Meerut, Muzaffarnagar and Roorkee has become double line (in January, 2021) after commissioning. This will improve punctuality on this congested route.

After completion of the above very important and critical projects, more line capacity will be available for smooth movement of passengers and freight on congested routes, increasing the speed of trains, starting new rail service, increasing safety as maintenance on these congested routes. Margin will be available.