Lok Sabha Question No. 2860 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-07-10
Subject: Development of Railway Land
Ministry: RAILWAYS
Asked by: Kanakmal Katara

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.2860 TO BE ANSWERED ON 10.07.2019

## DEVELOPMENT OF RAILWAY LAND

†2860.   SHRI KANAKMAL KATARA:

- Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state: (a) whether Railways have not achieved its various targets set during the  last  three  years  for  the  development  of  railway  land  and modernisation of facilites; (b) if so, the details thereof; (c) the reasons for slow pace in achieving the set targets of doubling the rail tracks and electrification in the country; and the  steps  taken/likely  to  be  taken  by  the  Railways  to  improve  the
- (d) rail infrastructure rapidly?

## ANSWER MINISTER OF RAILWAYS AND COMMERCE & INDUSTRY (SHRI PIYUSH GOYAL)

- (a) to (d):      A statement is laid on the Table of the House.

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STATEMENT  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (d) OF UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2860 BY SHRI KANAKMAL KATARA TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 10.07.2019  REGARDING  DEVELOPMENT OF RAILWAY LAND.

(a) and (b): Modernisation of facilities, inter-alia, involving development of Railway land, is an on-going, continuous process on Indian Railways and in the last  three  years,  about ` 3.50 lakh Cr.  has  been  spent  for modernisation. Further in last 3 years, development on Railway land has been done for approximately 7133 hectares in track & structures, 2510 hectares in afforestation, 88 hectares in commercial licensing and 1103 hectares in other usages viz., land licensed to Container Corporation of India Limited, land enstrusted to Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) and Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India, etc.

(c):  Indian Railways (IR) has achieved 6096 kilometres of doubling for the period 2014-15 to 2018-19 as against 1875 kilometers for the period 200910 to 2013-14. The year-wise details of doubling from 2009-10 to 2018-19 are as under;

Doubling during last 10 years

| Year    |   Kilometres |
|---------|--------------|
| 2009-10 |          285 |
| 2010-11 |          260 |
| 2011-12 |          400 |
| 2012-13 |          430 |
| 2013-14 |          500 |
| Total   |         1875 |

| Year      |   Kilometres |
|-----------|--------------|
| 2014 - 15 |          723 |
| 2015 - 16 |          973 |
| 2016 - 17 |          882 |
| 2017 - 18 |          999 |
| 2018 - 19 |         2519 |
| Total     |         6096 |

At present, 247 Projects of doubling are in different stages of execution/planning/sanction. The timely completion of any Railway project  depends    upon  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 consideration, encountering unforseen 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 cost of the project, which are the various  reasons  behind  slow  pace  in  achieving  the  targets  fixed  for doubling.

Indian  Railways  (IR)  has  achieved  13,687  route  kilometres  of Railway electrification for the period 2014-15 to 2018-19 as against 3038 route Kilometers for the period 2009-10 to 2013-14. The year-wise details are as under;

Railway Electrification during last 10 years

| Year    |   Commissioning RKM |
|---------|---------------------|
| 2009-10 |                 421 |
| 2010-11 |                  75 |
| 2011-12 |                 595 |
| 2012-13 |                1337 |
| 2013-14 |                 610 |
| Total   |                3038 |

| Year      |   Commissioning RKM |
|-----------|---------------------|
| 2014 - 15 |                1176 |
| 2015 - 16 |                1502 |
| 2016 - 17 |                1646 |
| 2017 - 18 |                4087 |
| 2018 - 19 |                5276 |
| Total     |               13687 |

...3/-

(d): For bringing rapid reforms in the Railways' infrastructure,  Ministry of Railways has taken many steps as under: (1) Ministry of Railways has approached State Governments to form Joint Venture  Companies  (JVCs)  with  Ministry  of  Railways  to  undertake mutually  identified  rail  infrastructure  projects  for  project  development, resources mobilization and monitoring. (2) Indian Railways has adopted Detailed Project Report (DPR) approach for new works which has resulted into saving of time in starting the work. Earlier,  it  used  to  take  2  to  3  years  for  starting  a  work  which  has  now been brought down to less than a year. (3) For capacity enchancement projects, institutional financing has been done  by  arranging  loan  from  M/s  Life  Insurance  Corporation  of  India Limited  for ` 1.5  lakh  crore,  which  has  increased  Railways'  capacity  for committed fund provision for essential projects. (4) The Zonal Railways have been delegated full powers with respect to acceptance  of  works  contracts  and  to  sanction  estimates.    This  has resulted  in  cutting  down  time  for  sanctions  of  estimate  and  award  of contract for execution of works.

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