Lok Sabha Question No. 787 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2024-02-07
Subject: Pending Railway Projects
Ministry: RAILWAYS
Asked by: Nishikant  Dubey

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 787 TO BE ANSWERED ON 07.02.2024

## PENDING RAILWAY PROJECTS

787.  DR. NISHIKANT DUBEY:

Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:

(a)    the number of railway projects, laying of new lines and doubling and electrification in different States that are lying pending since the last three years, State-wise;

- (b) the  details  of  cost  escalation  due  to  non-completion  of  these works; and
- (c) the timeline for completing such railway projects?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF RAILWAYS, COMMUNICATIONS AND ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

(SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW)

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

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STATEMENT  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PARTS  (a)  TO  (c)  OF UNSTARRED  QUESTION  NO.  787  BY  DR.  NISHIKANT  DUBEY  TO  BE ANSWERED  IN  LOK  SABHA  ON  07.02.2024  REGARDING  PENDING RAILWAY PROJECTS

(a) to (c): The Railway projects are sanctioned Zonal Railway wise and not  State  wise/UT  wise  as  the  Railways'  projects  may  span  across various state boundaries.

As  on  01.04.2023,  across  Indian  Railway,  459  Railway  Infrastructure projects  (New  Line,  Gauge  Conversion  and  Doubling)  of  46,360  Km length, costing approx. 7.18 lakh crore are in planning/approval/construction  stage,  out  of  which  11,872  Km  length has been commissioned upto March, 2023. These include:-

- (i) 189 New line projects of total length 20,659 Km, costing approx. 3.99 lakh crore are in planning/approval/construction stage, out of  which  2,903  Km  length  has  been  commissioned upto March, 2023.
- (ii) 39 Gauge Conversion projects of total length 5,405 Km, costing 48,580 crore are in planning/approval/construction stage, out of which  3,514  Km  length  has  been  commissioned  upto  March, 2023.
- (iii)   231 Doubling projects of total length 20,296 Km, costing approx. 2.70 lakh crore are in planning/approval/construction stage, out of  which  5,455  Km  length  has  been  commissioned upto March, 2023.

As  on  01.04.2023,  across  the  country,  189  Railway  Electrification projects  of  33,014  km  length,  costing  approx.  50,074  crore  are appearing  in  Pink  Book,  out  of  which  29,317  km  length  has  been commissioned upto March, 2023.

Zone-wise/year-wise  details  of  all  Railway  Projects  including  cost, expenditure and outlay are made available in public domain on Indian Railways website.

The details of commissioning of sections (New Lines, Gauge Conversion,  Doubling)  and  status  of  Railway  electrification  across Indian  Railways during the  last three  years  and  the  current  year  i.e. Yr.2020-21 to Yr. 2023-24 (Upto December, 2023) is given below:-

|                                                | 2020-21   | 2021-22   | 2022-23   | 2023-24 upto Dec'2023   |
|------------------------------------------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-------------------------|
| New Lines (in km)                              | 286       | 289       | 1815      | 2629                    |
| Gauge Conversion (in km)                       | 470       | 636       | 242       | 133                     |
| Doubling (in km)                               | 1614      | 1983      | 3186      | 1332                    |
| Electrification of Railway Lines (in Route km) | 6,015     | 6,366     | 6,565     | 2,696                   |

The completion of any Railway project(s) depends on various factors like  quick  land acquisition by State Government, forest clearance by officials  of  forest  department,  deposition  of  cost  share  by  State Government  in  cost  sharing  projects,  priority  of  projects,  shifting  of infringing  utilities,  statutory  clearances  from  various  authorities, geological and  topographical conditions of area, law and  order situation in the area of project(s) site, number of working months  in  a ..P/3

year for particular project site due to climatic conditions etc. and all these factors affect the completion time and cost of the project(s). As such, the confirmed time frame for completion of the project(s) cannot be ascertained at this stage.

Various  steps  taken  by  the  Government  for  speedy  approval  and implementation  of  rail  projects  include  (i)  setting  up  of  Gati  Shakti units (ii) prioritisation of projects (iii) substantial increase in allocation of funds on priority projects (iv) delegation of powers at field level (v) close  monitoring  of  progress  of project at various levels, and (vi) regular  follow  up  with  State  Governments and  concerned  authorities for  expeditious land  acquisition, forestry and Wildlife clearances and for  resolving  other  issues  pertaining  to  projects.  This  has  led  to substantial increase in rate of commissioning since 2014. The details of  commissioning  of  New  Lines,  Gauge  Conversion  and  Doubling sections across Indian Railways is given below:-

| Period   | Total Commissioning   | Commissioning per day   | Increase in commissioning w.r.t. commissioning during 2009-14   |
|----------|-----------------------|-------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| 2009-14  | 7,599 km              | 4.2 km/day              | -                                                               |
| 2022-23  | 5,243 km              | 14.4 km/day             | About 3.4 times                                                 |

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