The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Thursday approved six Railway projects with a total estimated cost of ₹12,343 crore to be fully funded by the Union government.
The multi-track proposals will ease operations and reduce congestion, providing much-needed infrastructural development on the busiest sections across Indian Railways, a Railways spokesperson said. The projects cover 18 districts in six States and will increase the existing network of Indian Railways by 1,020 km.
The sections selected for track doubling are: Ajmer-Chanderiya (178 km) in Rajasthan at a cost of ₹1,813 crore; Jaipur-Sawai Madhopur (131 km) in the same State for ₹1,268 crore; Luni-Samdari-Bhildi (271 km), which runs through both Gujarat and Rajasthan, for ₹3,530 crore; and Assam’s Agthori-Kamakhya (7 km), which includes a new rail-cum-road bridge pegged at ₹1,650 crore; Lumping-Furkating (140 km), which runs through Assam and Nagaland, at ₹2,333 crore; and Telengana and Andhra Pradesh’s Motumari-Vishnupuram (88 km), which includes a 10 km stretch of rail over rail at Motumari for ₹1,746 crore.
The projects, which are likely to be completed by 2029-30, will increase the existing line capacity of these sections, creating smoother train operations and improved punctuality, as well as lower wagon turnaround times. They are expected to help reduce congestion and increase rail traffic.
They are part of the PM-Gati Shakti National Master Plan for multi-model connectivity, which will provide seamless connectivity for the movement of people, goods, and services through integrated planning, the spokesperson said.
“These are essential routes for transportation of commodities such as food grains, food commodities, fertilizers, coal, cement, iron, steel, fly-ash, clinker, limestone, POL, container etc. The capacity augmentation works will result in additional freight traffic of magnitude 87 million tonnes per annum. The Railways, being an environment friendly and energy efficient mode of transportation, will help both in achieving climate goals and minimising logistics cost of the country, reduce oil import and lower CO2 emissions,” the spokesperson added.