Lok Sabha Question No. 2954 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-08-06
Subject: Pending/Ongoing Railway Projects in Punjab
Ministry: RAILWAYS
Asked by: Shri Malvinder Singh Kang

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2954 TO BE ANSWERED ON 06.08.2025

## PENDING/ONGOING RAILWAY PROJECTS IN PUNJAB

2954. SHRI MALVINDER SINGH KANG:

Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:

- (a) the details of pending and ongoing railway projects in the State of Punjab;
- (b) whether these projects have undergone time and cost overruns;
- (c) if  so,  the  details  of  the  original  estimated  cost,  the  period  of completion,  total  estimated  cost  and  the  expenditure  incurred thereon; and
- (d) the  time  by  when  these  projects  is  likely  to  be  completed  and made operational?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF RAILWAYS, INFORMATION & BROADCASTING AND ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

(SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW)

(a)  to  (d):  Budget  allocation  for  Infrastructure  projects  and  safety works,  falling  fully/  partly  in  Punjab  has  increased  significantly.  The details are as under:

| Period   | Outlay                            |
|----------|-----------------------------------|
| 2009-14  | Rs. 225 crore/year                |
| 2025-26  | Rs. 5421 Cr. (more than 24 times) |

The details of commissioning / laying of new track falling fully/partly in the State of Punjab during 2009-14 and 2014-25 are as below:-

| Period   | new Tracks Commissioned   | Average Commissioning of new tracks   |
|----------|---------------------------|---------------------------------------|
| 2009-14  | 147 Km                    | 29.4 km/year                          |
| 2014-25  | 385 Km                    | 35 km per year                        |

As  on  01.04.2025,  09  Projects  (04  New  line  and  05  Doubling)  of  total length 714 km, costing Rs.21,926 crore, falling fully/partly in the State of  Punjab  are  sanctioned,  out  of  which,  115  km  length  has  been commissioned and an expenditure of Rs. 8079 crores has been incurred up to March 2025. The status of the work is summarized as:

| Category   |   No. of projects |   Total Length (km) |   Length Commissioned (Km) |   Exp upto March 2025 (Rs. in cr.) |
|------------|-------------------|---------------------|----------------------------|------------------------------------|
| New Line   |                 4 |                 252 |                         64 |                               7359 |
| Doubling   |                 5 |                 462 |                         51 |                                720 |
| TOTAL      |                 9 |                 714 |                        115 |                               8079 |

Details of some of the recently completed projects falling fully/partly in the state of Punjab are as under:

|   # | Project                       |   Total Length (Km) | Cost(in Cr)   |
|-----|-------------------------------|---------------------|---------------|
|   1 | Jakhal- Mansa Doubling        |                  45 | 163           |
|   2 | Ambala-Chandigarh Doubling    |                  45 | 338           |
|   3 | Mansa-Bhatinda Doubling       |                  52 | 216           |
|   4 | Jalandhar-Jammu Tawi Doubling |                 211 | 850           |
|   5 | Rajpura-Bathinda Doubling     |                 173 | 2,459         |

Further,  some  of  the  Projects  falling  fully/partly  in  Punjab  which  have been taken up are as under:

| #                             |   Project | Length (Km)   |   Cost(Cr) |
|-------------------------------|-----------|---------------|------------|
| Nangal Dam-Talwara new line   |       123 | 2,018         |          1 |
| Bhanupalli-Beri new line      |        63 | 6,753         |          2 |
| Ferozpur-Patti new line       |        26 | 300           |          3 |
| Ludhiana-Kila Raipur Doubling |        17 | 238           |          4 |
| Ludhiana-Mullanpur Doubling   |        21 | 295           |          5 |
| Alal-Himmatana Chord line     |        12 | 174           |          6 |

Government of India is geared up to execute projects, however success depends  upon  the  support  of  Government  of  Punjab.  For  instance, details of  some  major projects which are delayed due to land acquisition are as under: -

|   SN | Name of the project         |   Total land required (in Ha) |   Land acquired (in Ha) |   Balance Land to be acquired (in Ha) |
|------|-----------------------------|-------------------------------|-------------------------|---------------------------------------|
|    1 | Firozpur-Patti new line     |                           166 |                       0 |                                   166 |
|    2 | Nangal Dam-Talwara New Line |                           278 |                     189 |                                    89 |
|    3 | Alal-Himmatana Chord line   |                            20 |                       0 |                                    20 |

Firozpur-Patti New line (26 km) situated fully in Punjab is an important project near the international border. Land for project is to be handed over free of cost for this project by State Govt. of Punjab. Total 166 Ha land is to be acquired in the districts of Firozpur and Tarn Taran. Award for entire land has been published in Mar'23. However, disbursement of award has not been done by state govt. The project is yet to take off due to delay in land acquisition by the State Government.

Railway projects are surveyed/ sanctioned/executed Zonal Railway wise and  not  State-wise/District-wise  as  the  Railways'  projects  may  span across State/District boundaries. Railway infrastructural Projects in the State of  Punjab are  covered  by  Northern  Railway  (NR)  Zone  of  Indian Railways.  Zonal  Railway  wise  details  of  Railway  projects  are  made available in public domain on Indian Railway's website.

Some of the  important  surveys  falling  fully/partly  in  Punjab  that  have been taken up areas under:

|   # | Name of survey                      |   Length (Km) |
|-----|-------------------------------------|---------------|
|   1 | Baddi-Ghanauli new line             |            25 |
|   2 | Sirhind-Morinda-Nangal Dam Doubling |           103 |
|   3 | Ambala Cantt-Jammu Tawi 3 rd line   |           369 |
|   4 | Gurdaspur-Mukerian new Line         |            30 |
|   5 | Rajpura- Mohali new line            |            18 |

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,  socioeconomic considerations including connectivity to religious and tourist places  etc.  depending  upon  throwforward  of  ongoing  projects  and overall availability of funds.

The completion of any Railway project 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 year for particular project site due to climatic conditions etc.

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