Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday (August 16) announced that the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved seven multi-tracking projects of Indian Railways at an estimated cost of around Rs 32,500 crore.
The proposed projects will cover 35 districts in nine states — Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal. It will enhance the line capacity, smoothen train operations, reduce congestion and facilitate ease of travelling and transportation.
These projects will also boost the existing network of Indian Railways by 2,339 km and generate employment opportunities for as many as 7.06 crore man-days to the people of the states.
Which are these 7 multi-tracking projects?
The Railways Minister said that these projects will be fully funded by the Centre and will bring down the travel time for passengers. The projects include –
- Doubling of the existing Gorakhpur-Cantt-Valmiki Nagar line
- The Son Nagar-Andal multi-tracking project
- Third line between Nergundi-Barang and Khurda Road-Vizianagaram and between Mudkhed-Medchal and Mahbubnagar-Dhone
- Doubling of existing line between Guntur-Bibinagar
- Doubling of existing line between Chopan-Chunar
- The quadrupling between Samakhiali-Gandhidham
Modernisation of Indian Railways
Vaishnaw further added the strategic significance of the proposed projects and said that these initiatives are intricately interconnected and should be viewed holistically. He emphasised that they collectively contribute to the modernisation of Indian Railways.
The Railways Minister highlighted that these routes are essential for the transportation of varied baskets of commodities such as foodgrains, fertilizers, coal, cement, iron and finished steel, edible oil, clinkers, crude oil, limestone, etc.
The capacity augmentation works will result in additional freight traffic of magnitude 200 MTPA (Million Tonnes Per Annum).