Lok Sabha Question No. 2091 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2020-03-04
Subject: Ongoing Railway Projects
Ministry: RAILWAYS
Asked by: Chandra Sekhar Sahu

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.2091 TO BE ANSWERED ON 04.03.2020

## ONGOING RAILWAY PROJECTS

2091.  SHRI CHANDRA SEKHAR SAHU:

Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government proposes to fund ongoing railway projects nearing completion on priority basis to reduce congestion;
- (b) if so, the details thereof, State/Zone-wise;
- (c) the  details  of  the  projects  which  would  be  completed  in  the  year 2020-21;
- (d) the  amount  of  funds  proposed  to  be  utilized  for  ongoing  railway projects nearing completion;
- (e) whether the Railways had a budgetary allocation of Rs. 70,000 crore and an outlay for capital expenditure amounting to Rs. 1.61 trillion for 2020-21 ; and
- (f) if so, the manner in which the required capital mobilized to speed up construction work?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF RAILWAYS AND COMMERCE & INDUSTRY

(SHRI PIYUSH GOYAL)

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

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STATEMENT  REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (f) OF UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2091 BY SHRI CHANDRA SEKHAR SAHU TO BE  ANSWERED  IN  LOK  SABHA  ON  04.03.2020  REGARDING  ONGOING RAILWAY PROJECTS

(a)  to  (d):  Yes,  Sir.  Presently,  Indian  Railways  have  taken  up  498  Railway projects of 49,069 km length, costing ` 6.75 lakh crore, which are in different stages of planning/sanction/execution, out of which, commissioning of 8,979 km length has been achieved and expenditure of ` 1.53 lakh crore has been incurred upto March, 2019.

Based on operational requirement, thorough review of throughput enhancement projects has been carried out and with focused approach, the projects have been prioritized into Super Critical Projects (58 nos), Critical Projects (68 nos.) and other throughput enhancement projects (130 nos.).

Presently, the balance length of Super Critical Projects is 2347 Km, 5676 Km of Critical Projects and 9703 Km for other Doubling Projects. All out sincere and focused approach is being adopted by Railway for quick execution and early return to Railways.

The details of Railway projects including allotment of fund and expenditure, project-wise are made available in public domain on Indian Railways website i.e. www.indianrailways.gov.in >Ministry of Railways >Railway Board >About Indian Railways >Railway Board Directorates >Finance (Budget).

Average  Budget  expenditure  in  New  Line,  Doubling  and  Gauge  Conversion Projects during 2014-19 has increased to ` 26,026 crore per year during 201419 from ` 11,527 crore per year during 2009-14.  The  average  budget expenditure during 2014-19 is 126% more as compared to average expenditure during 2009-14.

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  vary  from  project  to  project  and  site  to  site.  Hence,  no confirmed time frame can be fixed for completion of projects.

In the overall interest of the nation and to ensure that projects are 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 that are obstructing the progress of projects.

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.

For capacity enhancement projects, institutional financing has been arranged,  which  has  increased  Railways'  capacity  for  committed  fund provision for capacity enhancement projects.

During Financial Year 2020-21, ` 35,965 crore has been proposed as budget outlay  for  New  Line  Gauge  Conversion  and  Doubling  projects  from  Gross Budgetary Support and Institutional Financing from Extra Budgetary Resources.

(e) & (f): Railways' outlay for Capital Expenditure in Budget Estimates 202021  has  been  approved  for ` 1,60,142  crore  with  Gross  Budgetary  Support (including Nirbhaya fund) of ` 70,250 crore and Internal and Extra Budgetary Resources of ` 90,792 crore.

The  outlay  has  been  distributed  among  projects  of  various  Minor  Heads (Planheads)  like  New  Lines,  Gauge  Conversion,  Doubling,  Electrification, Workshops, Passenger Amenities, Metropolitan Transport Projects and other safety related works under Planheads like Level Crossings, Road Over/Under Bridges, Track Renewals, Bridge Works, Signalling and Telecom Works etc.

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