Lok Sabha Question No. 72 (STARRED), answered on 2017-12-20
Subject: Ongoing Railway Projects
Ministry: RAILWAYS
Asked by: SHARAD TRIPATHI

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 72 TO BE ANSWERED ON 20.12.2017

## ONGOING RAILWAY PROJECTS

†*72. SHRI SHARAD TRIPATHI:

Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:

- (a)   the  present  status  of  the  ongoing  railway  projects  lying  pending  in  the States  including  Uttar  Pradesh  along  with  the  date  from  which  these projects are lying pending, State and project-wise;
- (b)   the  amount  of  funds  allocated/spent  in  these  projects  during  each  of  the last three years and the current year;
- (c)   the  number  of  projects  lying  stuck  up/pending  in  the  absence  of  funds  in these States, State-wise;
- (d)   the time-limit fixed for completing the said projects and the steps taken by the Railways in this regard; and
- (e)   the  details  of  the  plan  formulated  by  the  Government  to  check  train accidents?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF RAILWAYS AND COAL

## (SHRI PIYUSH GOYAL)

- (a) to (e):   A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

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STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (e) OF STARRED QUESTION NO. 72 BY SHRI SHARAD TRIPATHI TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 20.12.2017 REGARDING ONGOING RAILWAY PROJECTS

(a):   As on 01.04.2017, there are 177 New Line, 58 Gauge Conversion and 256 Doubling projects, which are in different stages of execution. Summarized position is as under:-

( ` in Crore)

| Plan Head        |   No of Projects |   Total Length (Km) |   Total Anticipated Cost |   Expenditure as on 31.3.2017 |   Throw-forward as on 01.04.2017 |
|------------------|------------------|---------------------|--------------------------|-------------------------------|----------------------------------|
| New lines        |              177 |               20412 |                   299013 |                         57084 |                           241929 |
| Gauge Conversion |               58 |                8005 |                    43903 |                         15328 |                            28472 |
| Doubling         |              256 |               19908 |                   184900 |                         34560 |                           149476 |
| TOTAL            |              491 |               48325 |                   527816 |                        106972 |                           419877 |

Out of the above projects, 195 projects with approximate cost of ` 2,05,630 crore have been included in Railway Budget in 2015-16, 2016-17 & 2017-18. These  include  38  New  line  projects  covering  a  length  of  3416  km  at  an estimated cost of ` 62,742 crore, 25 gauge conversion projects of 1,398 km length at an estimated cost of ` 11,138 crore and 132 doubling projects of 12,690 km estimated to cost ` 1,31,750 crore.

State-wise details of all New Line, Gauge Conversion and Doubling projects included in Budget which falls partly/ fully in different States, including that of State of Uttar Pradesh are as tabulated below:-

| Name of State                | No. of projects   | No. of projects   | No. of projects   | Total   |
|------------------------------|-------------------|-------------------|-------------------|---------|
|                              | New Line          | Gauge Conversion  | Doubling          |         |
| Assam & North Eastern Region | 15                |                   | 6                 | 21      |
| Andhra Pradesh               | 17                |                   | 14                | 31      |
| Bihar                        | 34                | 5                 | 13                | 52      |

| Chhattisgarh     |   7 |    | 12   |   19 |
|------------------|-----|----|------|------|
| Delhi            |   1 |    | 5    |    6 |
| Gujarat          |   4 | 26 | 10   |   40 |
| Haryana          |   7 | 1  | 4    |   12 |
| Himachal Pradesh |   4 |    | -    |    4 |
| Jammu & Kashmir  |   1 |    | 4    |    5 |
| Jharkhand        |  12 |    | 18   |   30 |
| Karnataka        |  18 |    | 13   |   32 |
| Kerala           |   2 | 1  | 7    |   10 |
| Madhya Pradesh   |   8 | 5  | 23   |   35 |
| Maharashtra      |  13 | 4  | 19   |   36 |
| Odisha           |   9 | 1  | 26   |   36 |
| Punjab           |   6 |    | 9    |   15 |
| Rajasthan        |  10 | 6  | 11   |   27 |
| Telangana        |  10 |    | 5    |   15 |
| Tamil Nadu       |   9 | 6  | 12   |   27 |
| Uttar Pradesh    |  15 | 9  | 49   |   73 |
| Uttarakhand      |   3 | 2  | 1    |    6 |
| West Bengal      |  21 | 4  | 42   |   67 |

The  details  of  all  works  in  progress  and  new  works  included, allotment of funds, expenditure made are available in Pink Book laid on the Table of the House alongwith Budget papers every year.

In Uttar Pradesh, there are 73 projects of New Lines/Gauge conversion/Doubling having a total cost of ` 66,137 crore are in different stages of execution which fall partly or fully in the State of Uttar Pradesh. The aggregate length of these projects is approx. 6,606 Km.  These include:-

-  15  New  lines  projects  of  1,632  km  length  having  a  total  cost  of ` 17,531 crore
-  9 Gauge conversion projects of 1,356 km length having a total cost of ` 6,330 crore
-  49  Doubling  projects  of  3,619  km  length  having  a  total  cost  of ` 42,276 crore

(b):   The capital expenditure on New Line, Gauge Conversion and Doubling projects during last three years and current year is as under:-

2014-15 -

` 15,978 Crore

2015-16 -

` 29,422 Crore

2016-17 -

` 30,556 Crore

2017-18

-

` 33,914 Crore (Budget estimate)

(c):    Till  2013-14,  due  to  overall  limited  availability  of  funds,  most  of  the projects  were  not  progressing  satisfactorily.    Since  2014-15,  based  on physical progress of projects, last mile connectivity projects and projects for decongesting the existing routes have been given sufficient funds. For this purpose, funds for capacity enhancement projects have been arranged through  institutional  financing  by  tying  up  loan  with  M/s  Life  Insurance 1.5  lakh  crore  for  assured  funding  of

Corporation  of  India  Limited  for ` viable projects.

(d):    The  completion of railway projects requires clearances from various departments of State Government and Central Ministries like acquisition of land, statutory clearances like forestry and wild life clearances, cutting of trees,  shifting  of  services,  construction  of  road  over  bridges  and  road under  bridges  by  road  maintaining  agencies,  NOC  from  State  Irrigation Department  and  Power  Corporations,  law  &  order  issues  like  protests against  compensation  to  land  losers,  public  agitation  over  alignment, Extremism  and  Naxalite  problems  etc.,  which  are  beyond  the  control  of Ministry  of  Railways.    Further,  Railways  has  a  large  shelf  of  ongoing projects with limited overall availability of funds for their execution.  Thus, the targets for completion of projects are set on yearly basis depending on the total budget outlay, progress made in each project and relative priority.

Therefore,  it  is  not  feasible  to  fix  time  lines  for  completion  of  all  the projects.

(e):    Safety  is  accorded  the  highest  priority  by  Indian  Railways  and  all possible steps are undertaken on a continual basis including upgradation of technology to aid safe running of trains.    These include replacement of over-aged  assets,  elimination  of  unmanned  level  crossings,  adoption  of suitable  technologies  for  up  gradation  and  maintenance  of  track,  rolling stock, signaling and interlocking systems, safety drives, greater emphasis  on  training  of  officials  and  inspections  at  regular  intervals  to monitor  and  educate  staff  for  observance  of  safe  practices.   Safety devices/systems used to prevent accidents include complete track circuiting, provision of Block Proving Axle Counters (BPAC), Train Protection  Warning  Systems  (TPWS),  Colour  light  LED  Signals,  Vigilance Control  Device  (VCD),   usage  of  60  kg  rails  and  Pre-stressed  Concrete Sleepers,  long  rail  panels,  better  welding  technology,  digital  types  of machines  for  ultrasonic  flaw  detection  (USFD),  electronic  monitoring  of tracks using Track Recording Cars (TRC) and portable oscillation monitoring  system  (OMS),  progressive  use  of  Linke  Hofmann  Busch(LHB) Coaches, Centre Buffer Coupler with Integral Coach Factory(ICF) Coaches etc.   Other  measures  include  training  of  loco  pilots  and  other  safety category staff, improvement of other working conditions including proper rest  and  periodic  medical  examinations  etc.   Besides,  periodic  safety drives,  inspections  as  per  laid  down  schedules,  patrolling  of  tracks, footplate inspections and safety reviews at various levels are continuously conducted to monitor and improve safety aspects of the Railways.

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