Lok Sabha Question No. 3185 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-03-19
Subject: Construction of ROBs and RUBs in Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan
Ministry: RAILWAYS
Asked by: Shri Brijendra Singh Ola

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3185

## TO BE ANSWERED ON 19.03.2025

CONSTRUCTION OF ROBs AND RUBs IN JHUNJHUNU, RAJASTHAN

†3185.   SHRI BRIJENDRA SINGH OLA:

Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:

- (a) the details of  pending  infrastructure  projects  in  Railways including construction of Road Over Bridges (ROBs) and Road Under Bridges (RUBs);
- (b) the number of projects presently under construction in Jhunjhunu  Lok  Sabha  constituency  of  Rajasthan  including projects  like  Railway  Over  Bridges  (ROBs)  and  Road  Under Bridges (RUBs);
- (c) the  present  status  and  timeline  of  completion  of  all  these projects;
- (d) the  total  coverage  of  the  length  under  the  Kavach  protection system and s-well as the percentage of coverage with respect to the total rail network; and
- (e) the  present  status  of  the  National  Rail  Plan  2030,  including progress made towards identifying new dedicated freight and high-speed rail corridors?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF RAILWAYS, INFORMATION & BROADCASTING AND ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW)

(a) to (e): Railway projects are surveyed/ sanctioned/executed Zonal Railway wise and not State-wise/ Parliamentary constituency wise as the Railway projects may span across State boundaries.

Railway projects are sanctioned on the basis of remunerativeness, traffic projections, last mile connectivity, missing links and alternate routes, augmentation of congested/saturated lines, demands raised by State Governments, Central Ministries, Members of Parliament, other public representatives, Railway's own operational requirement, socio-economic considerations etc. depending  upon  throwforward  of  ongoing  projects  and  overall availability of funds.

As on 01.04.2024, across Indian Railways, 488 Railway infrastructure projects (187 New Line, 40 Gauge Conversion and 261 Doubling)  of  total  length  44,488  Km,  costing approx. 7.44  lakh crore  are  in  planning/approval/construction  stage,  out  of  which, 12,045  Km  length  has  been  commissioned  and  an  expenditure  of approx. 2.92 lakh crore has been incurred upto March, 2024. The summary is as under:-

| Category                 |   No of Projects | Total Length NL/GC/DL (in Km)   | Length Commissioned till Mar'24 (in Km)   | Total Exp upto Mar'24 ( in Cr)   |
|--------------------------|------------------|---------------------------------|-------------------------------------------|----------------------------------|
| New Lines                |              187 | 20199                           | 2855                                      | 160022                           |
| Gauge Conversion         |               40 | 4719                            | 2972                                      | 18706                            |
| Doubling / Multitracking |              261 | 19570                           | 6218                                      | 113742                           |
| Total                    |              488 | 44,488                          | 12,045                                    | 2,92,470                         |

The  details  of  outlay  for  infrastructure  projects  across  Indian Railways is as under:

| Period   | Outlay                       |
|----------|------------------------------|
| 2009-14  | 11,527 crore/year            |
| 2024-25  | 68,634 crore (about 6 times) |

The  details  of  commissioning  /  laying  of  new  track  across  Indian Railways is given below:-

| Period   | New Track Commissioned   | Average Commissioning of new tracks   |
|----------|--------------------------|---------------------------------------|
| 2009-14  | 7,599 Km                 | 4.2 Km/day                            |
| 2014-24  | 31,180 Km                | 8.54 Km/day ( more than 2 times)      |

Railway  infrastructure  projects  falling  fully/partly  in  the  State  of Rajasthan  are  covered  under  North  Western  Railway  (NWR),  North Central  Railway  (NCR),  Northern  Railway  (NR),  Western  Railway (WR) zones of Indian Railways.

Zonal  Railway  wise  details  of  Railway  projects  including  cost, expenditure  and  outlay  are  made  available  in  public  domain  on Indian Railway's website.

As  on  01.04.2024,  32  Railway  Projects  (15  New  Lines,  5  Gauge Conversion and 12 Doubling) of a total length of 4,191 Km, costing 51,814 crore, falling fully/partly in the State of Rajasthan including Jhunjhunu  are  at  various  stages  of  planning  and  implementation, out  of  which  1,183  Km  length  has  been  commissioned  and  an expenditure of 14,786 crore has been incurred upto March, 2024. The status of work is summarized as under:-

| Plan Head                |   No. of projects |   Total Length (in Km) |   Length Commissioned (Km) |   Expenditure upto March 2024 ( in cr.) |
|--------------------------|-------------------|------------------------|----------------------------|-----------------------------------------|
| New Lines                |                15 |                   1230 |                        134 |                                    3593 |
| Gauge Conversion         |                 5 |                   1252 |                        759 |                                    5398 |
| Doubling / Multitracking |                12 |                   1709 |                        290 |                                    5794 |
| Total                    |                32 |                   4191 |                       1183 |                                   14786 |

Budget  allocation  for  Infrastructure  projects  and  safety  works, falling fully/ partly in Rajasthan is as under:

| Period   | Outlay                           |
|----------|----------------------------------|
| 2009-14  | 682 crore/year                   |
| 2024-25  | 9,959 Crore (More than 14 times) |

The  details of commissioning  / laying of new  track falling fully/partly in the State of Rajasthan during 2009-14 and 2014-24 is as under is given below:-

| Period   | New Track Commissioned   | Average Commissioning of new tracks   |
|----------|--------------------------|---------------------------------------|
| 2009-14  | 798 Km                   | 159.6 Km/year                         |
| 2014-24  | 3,742 Km                 | 374.2 Km/year (More than 2 times)     |

Sanctioning of works of Road over Bridge (ROB)/Road under Bridge (RUB) in lieu of Level crossings (LCs) is a continuous and dynamic process of Indian Railway. Such works are prioritised and taken up on the basis of its impact on safety in train operations, mobility of trains & impact for road users and feasibility etc.

As on 01.02.2025, 4344 Nos. ongoing Road over Bridges (ROBs)/Road under Bridges (RUBs) at the cost of Rs. 97,422 Cr on Indian Railways including 547 Nos. of ROB/ RUB at the cost of Rs. 5,213 Cr in the State of Rajasthan.

04  Nos.  of  ROBs/RUBs  are  sanctioned  in  Jhunjhunu  parliamentary constituency, which are at various stages of planning and execution.

During  2024-25  (upto  Jan'25),  827  Nos.  of  ROBs/RUBs  have  been constructed on Indian Railways.

Completion & commissioning of ROB/RUB works depends on various factors like cooperation of  State Governments in giving  consent for closure  of  LC,   fixing  of  approach  alignment,  approval  of  General Arrangement Drawing (GAD), land acquisition, removal of encroachment, shifting of infringing  utilities,  statutory  clearances from    various    authorities,  law  and  order  situation  in  the  area  of project/  work  sites,  duration  of  working  season  in  a  year  for  the particular  project/area  due  to  climatic  conditions  etc.  All  these factors affect the completion time of the projects/works.

1. Kavach is an indigenously developed Automatic Train Protection (ATP)  system.  Kavach is  a  highly  technology  intensive  system, which requires safety certification of highest order (SIL-4).
2. Kavach aids the Loco Pilot  in  running  of  train  within  specified speed  limits  by  automatic  application  of  brakes  in  case  Loco Pilot fails to do so and also helps the trains to run safely during inclement weather.
3. The  first  field  trials  on  the  passenger  trains  were  started  in February 2016. Based on the experience gained and Independent Safety Assessment of the system by Independent Safety Assessor (ISA), three firms were approved in 2018-19, for supply of Kavach Version 3.2.
4. 4.
5. Kavach was adopted as National ATP system in July 2020.
5. Implementation of Kavach System involves following Key Activities:
- a. Installation of Station Kavach at each and every station, block section.
8. b.
9. Installation of RFID Tags throughout the track length.
- c. Installation of telecom Towers throughout the section.
11. d.
12. Laying of Optical Fibre Cable along the track.
- e. Provision  of  Loco  Kavach  on  each  and  every  Locomotive running on Indian Railways.
6. Based on deployment of Kavach version 3.2 on1465 Route Km on South Central Railway, lot of experience was gained. Using that further  improvements were made. Finally, Kavach specification version 4.0 was approved by RDSO on 16.07.2024.
7. Kavach version 4.0 covers all the major features required for the diverse railway network. This is a significant milestone in safety for  Indian  Railways.  Within  a  short  period,  Indian  Railways  has developed, tested and started deploying Automatic Train Protection System.

8. Major  improvement  in  Version  4.0  includes  increased  Location Accuracy, Improved Information of Signal Aspects in bigger yard, Station to Station Kavach interface on OFC and Direct Interface to existing Electronic Interlocking System. With these improvements,  Kavach  Version  4.0  is  planned  for  large  scale deployment over Indian Railways.
9. Progress  of  Key  items  comprising  Kavach  system  on  Indian Railways upto Feb' 2025 is as under: -
10. Next phase of Kavach implementation is planned as under:
- a. Project for equipping 10,000 Locomotives has been finalized. 69  number  of  loco  sheds  have  been  prepared  for  equipping with Kavach.
- b. Bids for track side Works of Kavach for approximately 15,000 RKm  have  been  invited  covering all  GQ,  GD,  HDN  and identified sections of Indian Railways, out of which works of 1865 RKm have been awarded.
11. Currently, 3 OEMs are approved for supply of Kavach System. To increase  capacity  and  scale  of  implementation,  trials  and approval of more OEMs are at different stages.
12. Specialized training programme on Kavach are being conducted at  centralized  training  institutes  of  Indian  Railways  to  impart training  to  all  concerned  officials.  By  now  more  than  20,000 technicians,  operators  and  engineers  have  been  trained  on Kavach technology. Courses have been designed in collaboration with IRISET.

| SN   | Items                                | Progress   |
|------|--------------------------------------|------------|
| i    | Laying of Optical Fibre Cable        | 5743 Km    |
| ii   | Installation of Telecom Towers       | 540 Nos.   |
| iii  | Provision of Kavach at Stations      | 664 Nos.   |
| iv   | Provision of Kavach in Loco          | 795 Locos  |
| v    | Installation of Track side equipment | 3727 Rkm   |

The  Progress  made  towards  identifying  new  Dedicated  Freight  & High Speed Rail Corridors is as under:-

## Dedicated Freight Corridor

Ministry  of  Railways  has  undertaken  the  work  of  preparation  of Detailed Project Reports (DPR) for following three (03) new Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFCs).

- (i) East-Coast Corridor: Kharagpur to Vijayawada
- (ii) East-West corridor:
- (a) Palghar-Bhusawal-Nagpur-Kharagpur-Dankuni
- (b) Rajkharsawan - Kalipahari - Andal
- (iii) North-South Sub-corridor: Vijayawada-Nagpur-Itarsi

DPRs of above three corridors are under examination.  None of the above three DFC's have been sanctioned yet. The DFC Projects are highly capital intensive and the final decision regarding the sanction of  any  DFC  Project  depends  upon  many  factors  such  as  technical feasibility, financial &  economic  viability, traffic  demand  and availability of funds & financial options etc.

## High - Speed Rail Corridor

Presently,  Mumbai-Ahmedabad  High  Speed  Rail  (MAHSR)  Project (508 Kms) is the only sanctioned project of High Speed Rail in India which is under execution.

Further, Ministry of Railways has undertaken the work of preparation of  Survey/  Detailed  Project  Report (DPR)  of  following  seven  High Speed  Rail (HSR) Corridors :-

- i.    Delhi - Varanasi
- ii.   Delhi - Ahmedabad

iii.   Delhi - Amritsar

- iv.   Mumbai - Nagpur
- v.    Mumbai - Pune - Hyderabad
- vi.   Chennai - Bangalore - Mysore
- vii.  Varanasi - Howrah

None of the above seven corridors has been sanctioned yet. Being HSR Corridor/Project depends on many factors such as outcome of DPR, as highly capital intensive, the decision to sanction any techno-economic feasibility, availability of resources such financing options.

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