Lok Sabha Question No. 31 (STARRED), answered on 2024-11-27
Subject: Pending Railway Projects
Ministry: RAILWAYS
Asked by: Dr. Shrikant Eknath Shinde, Shri Naresh Ganpat Mhaske

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 31

## TO BE ANSWERED ON 27.11.2024

## PENDING RAILWAY PROJECTS

- *31. DR. SHRIKANT EKNATH SHINDE: SHRI NARESH GANPAT MHASKE:

Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the    Government  is  aware  of  the  pending  railway projects in Maharashtra and Bihar and the need for surveys for construction  of  new  railway  lines  particularly  in  Samastipur, Khagariya, Mumbai North West, Thane and Kalyan parliamentary constituency;
- (b)      if  so,  the  details  thereof,  including  the  names  of  the  projects which are pending and/or under consideration;
- (c)    timeline for completion of the pending  projects, if any; and
- (d)     the  details  of  budgetary  provisions  for  completion  of  these projects during the last financial year, actual expenses during the  this  period  and  budgetary  provisions  during  the  current financial year?

## ANSWER

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

(SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW)

- (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 STARRED QUESTION NO. 31 BY DR. SHRIKANT EKNATH SHINDE AND SHRI NARESH GANPAT MHASKE TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 27.11.2024 REGARDING PENDING RAILWAY PROJECTS

(a) to (d): Railway  projects  are  surveyed/sanctioned  Zonal  Railwaywise  and  not  State-wise    or  Parliamentary  constituency  wise  as Indian Railways' projects may span across State boundaries/Parliamentary constituency boundaries.

Sanctioning of Railway projects is a continuous and dynamic process of Indian Railway. Railway Infrastructure Projects are taken up on the basis of remunerativeness, last mile  connectivity, missing links and alternate  routes,  augmentation  of  congested/saturated  lines  socioeconomic  considerations  etc.  depending  upon  liabilities  of  ongoing projects, overall availability of funds and competing demands.

As on 01.04.2024, across Indian Railways including Maharashtra and Bihar, 488 (187 New Lines, 40 Gauge conversion and 261 Doubling) of total  length  44,888  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 (km)   | Length Commission ed till Mar'24 (Km)   | Total Exp upto Mar'24 (Cr)   |
|---------------------------|------------------|------------------------------|-----------------------------------------|------------------------------|
| New lines                 |              187 | 20,199                       | 2,855                                   | 1,60,022                     |
| Gauge conversion          |               40 | 4,719                        | 2,972                                   | 18,706                       |
| Doubling / Multi tracking |              261 | 19,570                       | 6,218                                   | 1,13,742                     |
| Total                     |              488 | 44,488                       | 12,045                                  | 2,92,470                     |

Contd…2

## MAHARASHTRA

Railway  infrastructure  projects  falling  fully/partly  in  the  State  of Maharashtra  are covered under Central Railway, South Central Railway,  South  East  Central  Railway,  South  Western  Railway  and Western  Railway  Zones  of  Indian  Railways.  The  details  of  Railway projects  including  allotment  of  funds  and  expenditure  project  wise and zonal railway wise are made available in public domain on Indian Railways website.

91  No.  Surveys  (New  line,  Gauge  Conversion  and  Doubling/  multi tracking)  of  total  length  7,458  km  falling  fully/partly  in  the  state  of Maharashtra  have  been  sanctioned  during  the  last  three  years  and current year.

As on 01.04.2024, 41 projects (16 New Lines, 02 Gauge Conversions and 23 Doubling), of total length of 5,877 Km, costing ₹81,580 crore falling fully/partly in Maharashtra are in planning/approval/ construction stage, out of which 1,926 km length has been commissioned and an expenditure of ₹31,236 crore has been incurred upto March, 2024. The summary is as under:-

| Category                |   No. of projects |   Total Length (in km) |   Length Commissioned (Km) |   Exp upto March 2024 (₹ in cr.) |   Outlay 2024-25 (₹ in cr.) |
|-------------------------|-------------------|------------------------|----------------------------|----------------------------------|-----------------------------|
| New line                |                16 |                   2017 |                        166 |                             8529 |                        2125 |
| Gauge conversion        |                 2 |                    609 |                        312 |                             3332 |                         800 |
| Doubling/ Multitracking |                23 |                   3251 |                       1448 |                            19376 |                        4317 |
| Total                   |                41 |                   5877 |                       1926 |                            31236 |                        7242 |

Contd…3

Average  Budget  allocation  for Infrastructure projects and  other works, falling fully/ partly in Maharashtra is as under:

| Period   | Average Outlay    | Increase w.r.t.    |
|----------|-------------------|--------------------|
| 2009-14  | ₹ 1171 crore/year | -                  |
| 2024-25  | ₹ 15940 Crore.    | More than 13 times |

Commissioning of sections (New Line, Gauge Conversion and Doubling) falling fully/partly in the State of Maharashtra during 200914 and 2014-2024 is as under:

| Period   | Total Commissioning   | Average Commissioning   | Increase w.r.t. average commissioning during 2009-14   |
|----------|-----------------------|-------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------|
| 2009-14  | 292 km                | 58.4 km/year            | -                                                      |
| 2014-24  | 1830 km               | 183 km/year             | More than 3 times                                      |

To reduce congestion and meet the future demands of passengers in Mumbai  and  surrounding  areas,    Mumbai  Urban  Transport  Project (MUTP)-II  costing  ₹8,087  crore,  MUTP-III  costing  ₹10,947  crore  and MUTP-IIIA  costing  ₹33,690  crore  have  been  sanctioned.  The  list  of projects undertaken in Mumbai and surrounding areas is as under:

Contd…4

|   SN | Name of the Project                                                     |   Cost (in Cr.) |
|------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------|
|    1 | CSMT-Kurla 5 th & 6 th Line (MUTP-II) ( 17.5 km)                        |             891 |
|    2 | Mumbai Central-Borivali 6 th Line (MUTP-II) ( 30 km)                    |             919 |
|    3 | Extension of Harbour Line from Goregaon to Borivali (MUTP-IIIA) ( 7 km) |             826 |
|    4 | Borivali-Virar 5 th & 6 th line (MUTP-IIIA) ( 26 km)                    |            2184 |
|    5 | Virar-Dahanu Road 3 rd & 4 th Line (MUTP-III) ( 64 km)                  |            3587 |
|    6 | Panvel-Karjat Suburban Corridor (MUTP-III) ( 30 km)                     |            2782 |
|    7 | Airoli-Kalwa (elevated) suburban corridor link (MUTP-III) ( 4 km)       |             476 |
|    8 | Kalyan-Asangaon 4 th line (MUTP-IIIA) ( 32 km)                          |            1759 |
|    9 | Kalyan-Badlapur 3rd & 4th line (MUTP-IIIA) ( 14 km)                     |            1510 |
|   10 | Kalyan-Kasara 3 rd Line ( 67 km)                                        |             792 |
|   11 | Naigaon-Juichandra double chord line ( 6 km)                            |             176 |
|   12 | Nilaje- Kopar double chord line ( 5 km)                                 |             338 |

Further,  Construction  works  on  the  flagship  High  speed  bullet  train project  have  gathered  momentum  in  Maharashtra.  Now  100%  land acquisition has been completed. Works of bridges, aqueducts etc have been taken up. Orders for 3 TBMs to carry out about 21 km tunneling under  sea  have  also  been  placed.  Meanwhile,  all  preparatory  works required  for  the  working  of  TBMs  such  as  construction  of  shafts  etc have also been taken up.

Western DFC also passes through Maharashtra. About 178 route km of western DFC is situated in Maharashtra which is about 12% of overall route length of western DFC. 76 km of this project from New Gholvad to New Vaitarna in Maharashtra has already been commissioned. Balance works have been taken up. Connectivity of WDFC to JNPT will boost the capacity to handle cargo and container traffic from port to Delhi NCR.

## BIHAR

Railway Infrastructure Projects falling fully/partly in the State of Bihar are covered under East Central Railway (ECR), Eastern Railway (ER), North  Eastern  Railway  (NER)  and  Northeast  Frontier  Railway  (NFR) Zones  of  Indian  Railways.  Zonal  Railway  wise  details  of  Railway projects including cost, expenditure and outlay are made available in public domain.

During  the  last  3  years  (2021-22,  2022-23,  2023-24  and  current Financial Year i.e. 2024-25), 72 surveys (12 New line & 60 Doubling) of length  3,889  km  falling  fully/partly  in  the  State  of  Bihar  have  been sanctioned.

As on 01.04.2024, 55 projects (31 New Lines, 02 Gauge Conversions and 22 Doubling), of total length of 5,064 Km, costing ₹79,356 crore falling fully/partly in the State of Bihar are in planning/approval/construction  stage, out of which, 1,194 km length has  been  commissioned  and  an  expenditure  of  ₹26,983  crore  has been incurred upto March 2024. The summary is as under:-

| category                 |   No. of projec ts |   Total Length (in km) |   Length Commissio ned (Km) |   Exp upto March 2024 (₹ in cr.) |   Outlay 2024-25 (₹ in cr.) |
|--------------------------|--------------------|------------------------|-----------------------------|----------------------------------|-----------------------------|
| New line                 |                 31 |                   2712 |                         464 |                            13629 |                        2516 |
| Gauge                    |                  2 |                    348 |                         288 |                             1520 |                          60 |
| Doubling/ Multitrack ing |                 22 |                   2005 |                         442 |                            11834 |                        2498 |
| Total                    |                 55 |                   5064 |                        1194 |                            26983 |                        5074 |

Since 2014, there has been substantial increase in Budget allocation and commensurate commissioning of projects. Annual Budget allocation for Infrastructure and other works, falling fully/partly in the State of Bihar is as under:

| Year    | Outlay         | Increase w.r.t. allocation of   |
|---------|----------------|---------------------------------|
| 2013-14 | ₹ 1,245 Cr.    | -                               |
| 2023-24 | ₹ 8,505 Cr.    | More than 6 times               |
| 2024-25 | ₹ 10,033 crore | More than 8 times               |

Average  annual  commissioning  for  Infrastructure projects, falling fully/partly in the State of Bihar is as under:-

| Year    | Commissioning   | Increase w.r.t. average annual commissioning during   |
|---------|-----------------|-------------------------------------------------------|
| 2009-14 | 64 Km/year      | -                                                     |
| 2014-24 | 167 Km/year     | More than 2 times                                     |

Contd…7

Khagaria - Kusheshwar Asthan (42 km) new rail line project passing through Khagaria constituency is a  sanctioned project.  Out  of  total 42 km length, Khagaria -Alauli (19 km) section has been commissioned  and  remaining  Alauli  -  Kusheshwar  Asthan  (23  km) section work has been taken up.

Samastipur  -  Darbhanga  doubling  (38  km)  project  passing  through Samastipur constituency is a sanctioned project. Out of total 38 km, 26 km doubling has been commissioned and work in balance section has been taken up.

Completion of Railway project/s depends on various factors like land acquisition  by  State  Government,  forest  clearance  by  officials  of forest department, 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.  All  these  factors  affect  the  completion  time  of  the project/s.

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