Over 400 Indian Railways projects coming soon! Projects in the Indian Railways are sanctioned zone-wise instead of state-wise as these rail projects may span across state boundaries. As of 01.04.2021, as many as 484 projects of the Indian Railways network, of 51,165 kilometres length, costing an estimated amount of Rs 7.53 lakh crore are in various stages of planning, sanction, execution. Out of 51,165 kilometres, length of 10,638 kilometres has already been commissioned and an expenditure of nearly Rs 2.14 lakh crore has been incurred up to March 2021. Recently, Union Minister of Railways, Ashwini Vaishnaw, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha, informed about Indian Railways’ 484 projects, which are in different stages of planning, sanction, execution. These rail projects include:
New Line projects: As many as 187 projects, length of 21,037 Kilometres, costing an amount of Rs 4,05,916 crore, out of which commissioning of 2,621 Kilometres has been achieved and Rs 1,05,591 crore expenditure has been incurred up to March 2021.
Gauge Conversion projects: 46 number of projects, lenhth of 6,213 Kilometres, costing Rs 53,171 crore, out of which commissioning of 3,587 Kilometres length has been achieved and Rs 22,184 crore expenditure has been incurred up to March 2021.
Doubling projects: A total of 251 projects, length of 23,915 Kilometres, costing an amount of Rs 2,93,471 crore, out of which commissioning of 4,430 Kilometres length has been achieved and Rs 86,041 crore expenditure has been incurred up to March 2021.
A major milestone was achieved a few days ago by Northern Railways in the Kashmir rail project with one more tunnel in the Bankot area located near Banihal in Ramban, J&K connected after a breakthrough. With this, IRCON International Limited has finished most of the excavation work of railway tunnels between Banihal and the Khari section, officials were quoted saying in a PTI report. The development work on the Kashmir rail project is underway, in a 110 kilometres line between Katra and Banihal. It is expected to be over within the next two years.
