Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday said that import-export between Nepal and India will become easy after the doubling of the Gorakhpur Cantt-Valmiki Nagar rail section.
“The connectivity of Northeast with Bihar and Uttar Pradesh will also improve with the doubling of the Gorakhpur Cantt-Valmiki Nagar rail section. Along with this, import-export between Nepal and India will also become easy,” said Railway Minister Vaishnaw.
Gorakhpur Cantt-Valmiki Nagar rail section is one of the seven projects of the Ministry of Railways approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
It is important to mention here that in August 2022, the Network Planning Group (constituted under the institutional framework of ‘PM GatiShakti National Master Plan’) examined and recommended three important railway projects. These three were the doubling of the Gorakhpur Cantt – Valmikinagar rail line, Pachora – Jamner Gauge Conversion & Extension upto Bodwad, and Katihar – Mukuria and Katihar – Kumedpur doubling.
The group said that “all three projects are extremely important”. These ensure “faster movement of goods in the hinterland” which will accelerate the logistics efficiency and “bring a reduction in logistics costs”.
Seven Multi-tracking Projects
The estimated cost of the seven multi-tracking projects will be around Rs.32,500 crore (with 100% funding from Central Government). The projects will cover 35 districts in nine states of the country (Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Telangana, Gujarat, West Bengal, Odisha, and Jharkhand). The projects will increase the existing network of Indian Railways by 2339 kms. Also, it will provide employment of 7.06 crore man-days to the people, informed the Ministry of Railways.
1 Gorakhpur-Cantt-Valmiki Nagar (Doubling of existing line)
2 Son Nagar-Andal Multi tracking Project (Multi Tracking)
3 Nergundi-Barang and Khurda Road-Vizianagaram (3rd Line)
4 Mudkhed-Medchal and Mahbubnagar-Dhone (Doubling of the existing line)
5 Guntur-Bibinagar (Doubling of the existing line)
6 Chopan-Chunar (Doubling of existing line)
7 Samakhiali-Gandhidham (Quadrupling)