Indian Railways Increases Budget Allocation for New Lines, Gauge Conversion, and Doubling by Nearly 6 Times
Indian Railways Increases Budget Allocation for New Lines, Gauge Conversion, and Doubling by Nearly 6 Times
The Railway projects are surveyed/sanctioned/executed Zonal Railway-wise and not State/district-wise/region wise as the Railway projects may span across state boundaries.
As on 01.04.2024, across Indian Railways including North eastern region, 488 Railway Infrastructure projects (187 New Line, 40 Gauge Conversion and 261 Doubling) of total length 44,488 Km, costing approx. 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. 2.92 lakh crore has been incurred up to March, 2024.
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 Line, Gauge Conversion and Doubling across Indian Railways are 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
In 2023-24, 5,309 km sections have been commissioned across Indian Railways.
Zone-wise/year-wise details of all Railway Projects including cost, expenditure and outlay are made available in public domain on Indian Railways website.
During the last 10 years i.e. FY 2014-15 till FY 2023-24, across Indian Railways, 297 projects (New Line, Gauge Conversion and Doubling) of total length 23,352 km, costing approx. `2.65 lakh crore have been completed.
Railway infrastructural Projects in the Northeast Region are covered by Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) Zone of Indian Railways.
As on 01.04.2024, 18 projects (13 New Lines and 5 Doubling), of a total length of 1,368 km, costing `74,972 crore, falling fully/partly in North Eastern Region, are in planning/approval/construction stage, out of which 313 km length has been commissioned and an expenditure of `40,549 crore has been incurred upto March 2024.
Average Budget allocation for Infrastructure projects and safety works, falling fully/ partly in North Eastern Region is as under:
Period
Average Outlay
Increase w.r.t. average allocation of 2009-14
2009-14
2,122 crore/year
–
2024-25
10,376 crore
About 5 times
Moreover, Commissioning of sections (New Lines, Gauge Conversion and Doubling) falling fully/partly in the North Eastern Region during 2009-14 and 2014-24 is as under:
Period
Total Length Commissioned
Average Length Commissioned
Increase w.r.t. average commissioning during 2009-14
2009-14
333 km
66.6 km/Year
–
2014-24
1,728 km
172.8 km/Year
About 2.6 times
During financial year 2023-24, total 110 km has been commissioned in North Eastern Region.
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.
Final Location Survey for New Rail line from Agthori – Dekargaon (155 Km) passing through Darrang District of Assam has been sanctioned.
This information was given by the Union Minister of Railways, Information & Broadcasting and Electronics & Information Technology Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.