The 55th meeting of the Gati Shakti Network Planning Group (NPG) assessed three projects each of the Ministry of Railways (MoR) and Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) with a total project cost of Rs. 14,081 crores. The total number of projects assessed by NPG since the launch of PM Gati Shakti is 106, amounting to a total value of around Rs. 11 lakh crores.
Three railway line projects with a total project cost of Rs. 5,374.5 crores were among the projects to be discussed. These projects are also expected to reduce the overall logistics cost by providing shorter routes and reducing the traffic congestion on existing railway lines.
One Greenfield railway line project alignment passes through West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand while another Greenfield railway line is located in Odisha, which will be an alternate and shorter alignment to existing railway line and shall help in decongestion of existing track. The third railway line is located in Gujarat.
The government expects these railway lines to benefit the steel, cement and power industries by easing the transportation of coal, limestone, iron ore and finished products, apart from benefitting the passenger transport.
One road project (Dhubri bridge – Goeragre) is located in the state of Meghalaya and will connect the under-construction four-lane Dhubri-Phulbari bridge connecting the East-West Road Corridor. This project aims to benefit transport of agro-products and facilitate international trade at the India-Bangladesh border region.
Another Greenfield Road project (Kharagpur- Moregram) is part of Kharagpur Siliguri Road Corridor. The project will reduce the overall distance from Kharagpur to Siliguri by 112 km and travel time by up to seven hours and aims to benefit aspirational districts with an aim for overall socio-economic upliftment of the region. The road will also benefit international trade via Haldia/Kolkata port.