Lok Sabha Question No. 4214 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-03-26
Subject: Doubling of Ara-Sasaram Railway Line
Ministry: RAILWAYS
Asked by: Shri Sudama Prasad

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4214

## TO BE ANSWERED ON 26.03.2025

## DOUBLING OF ARA-SASARAM RAILWAY LINE

## 4214. SHRI SUDAMA PRASAD:

## Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Government  has  initiated  steps  for  doubling  the  AraSasaram  railway  line,  if  so,  the  details  of  the  project  and  if  not, the reasons therefor;
- (b)     the  current  status  of  the  railway  line  from  Ara-Bhabua  Road    to Mundeshwari Sthan for which survey has been done but construction hasn't started;
- (c) the  details  of  the  response  of  Railways  on  authorising  halts  for following trains at Ara Junction, Patna - New Delhi  Rajdhani   Express, Patna-Indore  Express,  Akal  Takht  Express,  Rajendra  Nagar-Howrah Express-Ranchi Express (should run daily), Ganga Damodar Express;
- (d) the  details  of  steps  taken  by  the  Government  for  ensuring  timely completion  of  the  foot-over  bridge  construction  at  Ara's  eastern
- Gumti crossing; and
- (e) the  details  of  the  response  of  the  Government  on  long  standing demand  for  establishing a first-aid center at Ara Junction and starting  ambulance  service  from  the  station  to  Sadar  Hospital  for handling railway accidents efficiently?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF RAILWAYS, INFORMATION & BROADCASTING AND

## ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

(SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW)

(a) to  (e):    The  multi-tracking  projects  are  taken  up  based  on  the  line capacity  utilisation  and  traffic potential. At  recent, Ara-Sasaram  single  line Contd…2/-

section  has  adequate  line  capacity  to  meet  the  current  traffic.  However,  to further  improve  flow  of  traffic  in  this  section,  the  works  of  Rail-Over-Rail flyover  at  Sasaram  and  Ara  Bypass  line  have  been  sanctioned  recently. Sanctioning of Railway projects is a continuous and dynamic process of Indian Railway  and  railway  infrastructure  projects  are  taken  up  on  the  basis  of remunerativeness, traffic projections, last mile connectivity, missing links and alternate  routes,  augmentation  of  congested/saturated  lines,  socio-economic considerations  etc.  depending  upon  liabilities  of  ongoing  projects,  overall availability of funds and competing demands.

The  execution  of  Ara-Bhabua  Road  (125  Km)  new  rail  line  project,  with Bhabhua  Road-Mundeshwari  Dham  (26  Km)  new  line,  is  a  sanctioned  work. However, execution of this project could not be taken up at present, due to low traffic potential.

As on 01.04.2024, 55 projects (31 New Lines,  02 Gauge Conversions and 22 Doubling),  of  total  length  of  5,064  Km,  costing  Rs.  79,356  crore  falling fully/partly  in  the  State  of  Bihar  including  projects  falling  in  Valmikinagar Parliamentary Constituency and Tribal dominated areas are in planning/approval/construction stage, out of which, 1194 km length has been commissioned and an expenditure of Rs. 26,983 crore has been incurred upto March, 2024. The summary is as under:-

| Category                 |   No. of projects |   Total Length (in Km) |   Length Commission ed till March, 2024 (in Km) |   Total Exp. upto March, 2024 (Rs. in Cr.) |
|--------------------------|-------------------|------------------------|-------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------|
| New Lines                |                31 |                   2712 |                                             464 |                                      13629 |
| Gauge Conversion         |                 2 |                    348 |                                             288 |                                       1520 |
| Doubling/Multi- tracking |                22 |                   2005 |                                             442 |                                      11834 |
| Total                    |                55 |                   5064 |                                            1194 |                                      26983 |

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

| Period   | Outlay                          |
|----------|---------------------------------|
| 2009-14  | Rs. 1132 Cr./year               |
| 2025-26  | Rs. 10,066 Cr. (Nearly 9 times) |

The details of commissioning/ laying of new track falling fully/partly in the State of Bihar is as under:-

| Period   | New Track Commissioned   | Average Commissioning of new tracks   |
|----------|--------------------------|---------------------------------------|
| 2009-14  | 318 Km                   | 63.6 Km                               |
| 2014-24  | 1669 Km                  | 166.9 Km (More than 2.5 times)        |

Ara station is presently being served by 148 regular train services including 12355/12356 Rajendra Nagar (T)-Jammu Tawi Archana Express, 12367/12368 Bhagalpur-Anand Vihar (T) Vikramshila Express, 12327/12328 Howrah-Dehradun  Upasana  Express  and  12393/12394 Rajendra Nagar (T)-

New Delhi Sampoorna Kranti Express. These services connect Ara to major cities like Delhi, Amritsar, Jammu, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Guwahati etc. However, 12351/52 Rajendra Nagar-Howrah Express and 13329/30 Dhanbad-Patna Ganga Damodar Express do not run via  Ara.  Besides,  provision  of  stoppage  and increase in  frequency of train services  are  on-going  processes  on  Indian  Railways  subject  to  traffic justification, operational feasibility, etc.

Earlier, there was a Level Crossing (LC) No. 48 at Km 591.7 at eastern side of Ara Railway station on Ara-Jamira section. A Road over Bridge (ROB) in lieu of this LC has been completed and LC has been closed in year 2021. In view of public demand the work of Foot Over Bridge (FOB) at this location has also been taken up.

Ara is served by Buxar health unit and Danapur Divisional Railway Hospital. Railway doctors from Buxar Railway Health Unit have been deployed to visit twice in a week for providing medical facilities at Ara Railway Junction. In addition to this, Ambulance services of Railways, State Government/Private Hospitals  and  ambulance  service  of  Railways,  State  Government/Private Hospitals  and  ambulance  service  providers  are  utilized  to  transport  the injured/sick passengers to nearby hospitals/doctor's clinics.

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