Lok Sabha Question No. 3719 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2024-12-18
Subject: Funds for Construction Work in West Bengal and North Eastern States
Ministry: RAILWAYS
Asked by: Smt. Rachna Banerjee

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3719 TO BE ANSWERED ON 18.12.2024

## FUNDS FOR CONSTRUCTION WORK IN WEST BENGAL AND NORTH EASTERN STATES

3719.   SMT. RACHNA BANERJEE:

Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:

- a)  the details of Railway projects for West Bengal and North Eastern States announced during the last 5 Financial Years' Railway Budgets but no fund allocated to start the construction work;
- b)  the expected time by which funds would be allocated for starting work for the announced projects;
- c)  the details of project surveyed for consideration and inclusion in the next Railway Budget;
- d)  the details of projects considered on 50:50 cost sharing basis with the State Governments and
- e)  the current status of those projects?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF RAILWAYS, INFORMATION & BROADCASTIONG AND ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

(SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW)

(a) to (e): Railway projects are surveyed/ sanctioned/executed Zonal Railway wise and not State-wise/District/Constituency wise as the Railways' projects

Cont…..2/-

may span across State boundaries. Railway projects are sanctioned on the basis of remunerativeness, traffic projections, last mile connectivity, missinglinks  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.

During  the  last  five  years  starting  from  2019-20  to  2023-24  and  current financial  year  2024-25,  total  14  Projects  (01  New  Line  and  13  Doubling) falling fully/partly in the State of West Bengal and Northeast Region having a total length of 941 Km at a cost of Rs. 22,754 crore have been sanctioned. Funds are allocated to Railway Projects as per their requirements.

## West Bengal:

Railway  infrastructure  projects  falling  fully/partly  in  the  West  Bengal  are covered  under  Eastern  Railway,  South  Eastern  Railway  and  Northeast Frontier  Railway  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, 43 projects (13 New Lines, 04 Gauge Conversions and 26 Doubling), of total length of 4479  Km,  costing ₹60,168 crore falling fully/partly  in  the  State  of  West  Bengal  including  those  which  are  in planning/approval/construction stage, out of which, 1655 km length has been

commissioned and an expenditure of ₹20,434 crore has been incurred upto March, 2024. The summary is as under:-

| Category                 |   No. of projects |   Total Length (in Km) |   Length Commissioned till March, 2024 (in Km) |   Total Exp. upto March, 2024 (Rs. in Cr.) |
|--------------------------|-------------------|------------------------|------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------|
| New Lines                |                13 |                   1087 |                                            322 |                                       9774 |
| Gauge Conversion         |                 4 |                   1201 |                                            854 |                                       3663 |
| Doubling/Multi- tracking |                26 |                   2192 |                                            479 |                                       6997 |
| Total                    |                43 |                   4479 |                                           1655 |                                      20434 |

The details of outlay for infrastructure projects falling fully/partly in the State of West Bengal is as under:-

| Period   | Outlay                             |
|----------|------------------------------------|
| 2009-14  | Rs. 4,380 Cr./year                 |
| 2024-25  | Rs. 13,941 Cr. (More than 3 times) |

During  last  three  years  (i.e.  2021-2022,  2022-2023,  2023-24  and  current Financial  Year  i.e.  2024-25),  total  30  Nos.  of  Surveys  (03  New  Line  and  27 Doubling) falling fully/partly in the State of West Bengal having a total length of 866 Km have been completed.

Execution of important infrastructure projects falling fully/partly in the State of  West  Bengal  is  held  up  due  to  delay  in  land  acquisition.  Status  of  land acquisition in West Bengal is as under:

| Total Land required for Projects in West Bengal   | 3040 Ha       |
|---------------------------------------------------|---------------|
| Land Acquired                                     | 640 Ha (21%)  |
| Balance Land to be acquired                       | 2400 Ha (79%) |

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 acquire d (in Ha) |   Balance Land to be acquired (in Ha) |
|------|------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------|--------------------------|---------------------------------------|
|    1 | Nabadwipghat-Nabadwipdham New Line (10 Km)     |                        106.86 |                     0.17 |                                106.69 |
|    2 | Chandaneshwar-Jaleswar new line (41 Km)        |                        158    |                     0    |                                158    |
|    3 | Naihati-Ranaghat-3 rd line (36 Km)             |                         87.83 |                     0.09 |                                 87.74 |
|    4 | Balurghat-Hilli new line (30 km)               |                        156.38 |                    67.38 |                                 88    |
|    5 | Byepass at Sainthia (5 Km) & Sitarampur (7 Km) |                         22.28 |                     2.22 |                                 20.06 |

## North Eastern Region:

Railway infrastructure projects falling fully/partly in the Northeast Region are covered  under  Northeast  Frontier  Railway  zone  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,  18  Railway  projects  (13  New  Lines  and  05  Doubling),  of total length of 1,368 Km, costing ₹74,972 crore falling fully/partly in the North Eastern Region, are at various stages of planning and implementation, out of which 313 Km length has been commissioned and an expenditure of ₹40,549 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 (in Km) |   Expenditure March, (₹ n Cr.) | upto 2024   |
|-------------|-------------------|------------------------|-------------------------------|--------------------------------|-------------|
| New Lines   |                13 |                    896 |                            81 |                          34616 |             |
| Doubling    |                 5 |                    472 |                           232 |                           5933 |             |
| Total       |                18 |                   1368 |                           313 |                          40549 |             |

Average Budget allocation for Infrastructure projects and other works, falling fully/ partly in North Eastern Region is as under:-

| Period   | Outlay                         |
|----------|--------------------------------|
| 2009-14  | ₹2,122 Crore/year              |
| 2024-25  | ₹10,376 Crore (Nearly 5 times) |

Commissioning  of  infrastructure  projects  falling  fully/partly  in  the  State  of North Eastern Region is given below:

| Period   | New Track Commissioned   | Average Commissioning of new tracks   |
|----------|--------------------------|---------------------------------------|
| 2009-14  | 333 Km                   | 66.6 Km/year                          |
| 2014-24  | 1728 Km                  | 172.8 Km/year (Nearly 3 times)        |

During  last  three  years  (i.e.  2021-2022,  2022-2023,  2023-24  and  current Financial  Year  i.e.  2024-25),  total  13  Nos.  of  Surveys  (11  New  Line  and  02 Doubling) falling fully/partly in the Northeast Region having a total length of 1066 Km have been completed.

There is no cost sharing projects falling fully/partly in West Bengal and North Eastern Region.

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.

*****