Lok Sabha Question No. 494 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2020-02-05
Subject: New Railway Projects in Gopalganj
Ministry: RAILWAYS
Asked by: Alok Kumar Suman

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 494 TO BE ANSWERED ON 05.02.2020

## NEW RAILWAY PROJECTS IN GOPALGANJ

494.       DR. ALOK KUMAR SUMAN:

Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:

- (a)        whether  the  Government  has  decided  not  to  take  up  new projects in district Gopalganj of Bihar until the completion of existing ones;
- (b)      the details of the projects in-progress and the time-frame for completion of the same; and
- (c)       the reasons for delays in completion of projects and the steps being taken for timely completion of on-going projects?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF RAILWAYS AND COMMERCE & INDUSTRY

(SHRI PIYUSH GOYAL)

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

STATEMENT  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PARTS  (a)  TO  (c)  OF UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 494 BY DR. ALOK KUMAR SUMAN TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 05.02.2020 REGARDING NEW RAILWAY PROJECTS IN GOPALGANJ

(a):  No, Sir. Projects are sanctioned Zone-wise but not district-wise/ state-wise.

However,  sanction  of  projects  for  development  of  Railways  is taken  up  on  the  basis  of  last  mile  connectivity,  missing  links, alternate routes, remunerativeness, etc.

At  present,  55  Projects  (New  line/Gauge  conversion/Doubling) costing ` 71,795 crore for 4,952 km length falling fully/partly in  the State of Bihar are under different stages  of planning/approval/ execution.

Further, total 13 projects covering a length of 986 km  costing ` 13231  crore  falling  fully/partly  in  the  State  of  Bihar  have  been included in the Budget during last five years and current year (201415 to 2018-19 & 2019-2020) and are in different stages of planning/ approval/execution.

(b)  and  (c):  There  is  an  ongoing  Hathua-Bhatni  (79.64  km)  new  line project  falling  fully/partly    in  the  District  of  Gopalganj.  The  latest anticipated cost of the project is ` 770.08 crore. An expenditure of ` 277.13 crore has been incurred upto March, 2019. HathuaPanchdeori section (31 km) has been commissioned. Work on balance 48.64 km is held up due to non availability of land (36.00 km in the district of Gopalganj of Bihar and 12.64 km in the District of Deoria of Uttar Pradesh). Land acquisition proceeding for 333 Acre in Panchdeori-Bhore (36 km) section has been taken up in Bihar State and 101.13 Acre in Deoria District of Uttar Pradesh.

The  completion  of  any  Railway  project  depends  on  various factors  like  quick  land  acquisition  by  State  Government,  forest clearance  by  officials  of  forest  department,  shifting  of  infringing utilities  (both  underground  and  over  ground),  statutory  clearances from various authorities,  geological  and  topographical  conditions  of area,  law  and  order  situation  in  the  area  of  project  site,  number  of working months in a year for particular project site due to climatic conditions, encountering unforeseen conditions like earthquake, flooding, excessive rains, strikes of labour, orders of Hon'ble Courts, situation and conditions of working agencies/contractors etc. and all these factors affect the completion of the project. Therefore, confirmed timeline for this project cannot be given.

To ensure the project is completed in time without cost overrun, lot  of  monitoring  is  done  in  Railways  at  various  levels  (field  level, Divisional level, Zonal level and Board level) and regular meetings are held with the officials of State Government and concerned authorities to  resolve  the  pending  issues  obstructing  the  progress  of  projects. Besides  to  ensure  that  projects  are  completed  even  before  time, Railway has adopted the concept of incentives to the contractor in the form of bonus clause in contracts which will further enhance the pace of execution of projects.

******