Lok Sabha Question No. 2995 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-03-19
Subject: Railway Connectivity in Remote Areas
Ministry: RAILWAYS
Asked by: Smt. Bijuli Kalita Medhi, Dr. Kalanidhi Veeraswamy

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2995 TO BE ANSWERED ON 19.03.2025

## RAILWAY CONNECTIVITY IN REMOTE AREAS

2995.

DR. KALANIDHI VEERASWAMY: SMT. BIJULI KALITA MEDHI:

Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:

The  details  of  the  initiatives  being  introduced  to  enhance  rail connectivity and services in under developed and border area of the country  specially  in  Assam  given  the  importance  of  railways  in connecting remote regions?

## ANSWER

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

Railway projects are surveyed/ sanctioned/executed Zonal Railway wise and not State-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, socioeconomic  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                         |

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

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 infrastructural Projects in the State of Assam and Northeast are covered by Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) 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 projects(13  New  Lines and 5 Doubling), of  a total length of 1,368 km, costing 74,972 crore, falling fully/partly in Assam and NE Region, are in planning/approval/construction stage, out  of  which  313  km  length  has  been  commissioned  and  an expenditure  of 40,549  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                |               13 |                             896 |                                        81 |                            34616 |
| Doubling / Multitracking |                5 |                             472 |                                       232 |                             5933 |
| Total                    |               18 |                            1368 |                                       313 |                            40549 |

Budget  allocation  for  Infrastructure  projects  and  safety  works, falling fully/ partly in Assam and North east region is as under:

| Period   | Outlay                          |
|----------|---------------------------------|
| 2009-14  | 2122 crore/year                 |
| 2024-25  | 10376 crore (More than 4 times) |

The details of commissioning / laying of  new track falling fully/partly in  Assam  and  North  east  region  during  2009-14  and  2014-24  is  as under :-

| 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 (More than 2 times)     |

In last 3 years (2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24 and current Financial Year i.e. 2024-25), 933 No. Surveys (299 New line, 14 Gauge Conversion and 620 Doubling) of total length 65,488 km have been sanctioned across Indian Railways, out of which 21 surveys (17 New line & 04 Doubling) of total length 2,499 km fall fully/partly in the North East Region including the State of Assam.

As  the  Railway  network  straddles  across  State  boundaries,  trains are introduced, as per network requirement, across such boundaries. However, Indian Railways (IR), makes consistent efforts to  cater  to  the  needs  of  travelling  passengers  by  introducing  new trains,  extending  and  increasing  the  frequencies  of  existing  trains and  accordingly  to  cater  to  the  needs  of  passengers  of  State  of Assam, IR, on originating/terminating basis have introduced 24 new services, extended 20 services and increased the frequencies of 14 services during the period 2019-20 to 2024-25 (February, 2025).

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