Lok Sabha Question No. 157 (STARRED), answered on 2025-07-30
Subject: New Railway Lines/Trains in Uttarakhand
Ministry: RAILWAYS
Asked by: Shri Ajay Bhatt

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 157 TO BE ANSWERED ON 30.07.2025

## NEW RAILWAY LINES/TRAINS IN UTTARAKHAND

†*157. SHRI AJAY BHATT: Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:

the  project-wise  total  amount  of  funds  allocated  to  Uttarakhand  for new railway projects during the last three years and the current year?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF RAILWAYS, INFORMATION & BROADCASTING AND

## ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

(SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW)

A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

*****

STATEMENT  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  OF  LOK  SABHA  STARRED QUESTION NO. 157 TO BE ANSWERED ON 30.07.2025.

The Railway projects are surveyed/ sanctioned/executed Zonal Railway wise  and  not  State-wise  as  the  Railways'  projects  may  span  across state 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, 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.

New Lines projects falling fully/partly in Uttarakhand are covered under Northern Railway (NR) and North Eastern Railway (NER) Zones of Indian Railways.  Zonal  Railway wise details  of  Railway  projects  are  made available in public domain on Indian Railway's website.

As  on  01.04.2025,  03  New  Lines,  covering  total  length  of  216  Km costing Rs 40,384 crore falling fully/partly in the State of Uttarakhand are sanctioned, out of which 16  Km length has been commissioned and an expenditure of Rs19,898 crore has been incurred upto March' 2025.

The status of work is summarized as under:-

| Category   |   No. of projects |   Total Length (in Km) |   Length Commissioned (in Km) | Expenditure upto March 2025 (Rs in crore)   |
|------------|-------------------|------------------------|-------------------------------|---------------------------------------------|
| New Lines  |                03 |                    216 |                            16 | 19,898                                      |

Budget  allocation  for  Infrastructure  projects  and  safety  works,  falling fully/ partly in Uttarakhand is as under:

| Period   | Outlay                           |
|----------|----------------------------------|
| 2009-14  | Rs 187 Crore/year                |
| 2025-26  | Rs 4,641 Crore (nearly 25 times) |

Zone-wise/year-wise details of all Railway projects are made available in public domain on Indian Railway's website.

The status of major projects falling fully/partly in the State of Uttarakhand is as under:

-  Recently Deoband-Roorkee new line project (27 km) has  been completed.  It  will  reduce  the  distance  between  Delhi  and Dehradun by approx. 40 km.
-  Rishikesh-Karnaprayag  new  rail  line  project  (125  km)  is  a prestigious project of Indian Railways which lies completely in the state of Uttarakhand. It passes through difficult geological and challenging terrain of Himalayas. This project is aimed at transforming connectivity in Uttarakhand.

The project alignment passes through Dehradun, Tehri Garhwal, Pauri Garhwal,  Rudrapryag  and  Chamoli  Districts  of  Uttarakhand  and  will provide  rail  connectivity  to  Devprayag  and  Karnaprayag  religious  and tourist spots with Rishikesh and National Capital of India.

The  alignment  of  the  project  predominantly  passes  through  tunnels. The  project  involves  construction  of  16  main  line  tunnels  of  105  km length  and  12  escape tunnels of  about  98  km  length.  So far, 13  main line tunnels and 9 escape tunnels have been completed.

To increase progress of  works, 08 Adits in  various  tunnels were  also identified. These adits created additional work faces of tunnel excavation expediting early completion of long tunnels. Works of all 8 Adits have also been completed.

Accordingly,  tunneling  of  199  Km  against  total  scope  of  213  Km  has been completed.

For the first time in Indian Railways, Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) was deployed  in  the  Himalayan  Geology  for  faster  execution  of  works  of longest tunnel (T-8) which is 14.8Km long. Breakthrough of this tunnel through TBM has been achieved.

The  tunneling  is  being  carried  out  with  all  precautions  and  latest technologies to ensure minimum damage to ecology and surroundings.

During  the  last  three  years  i.e.  2022-23,  2023-24,  2024-25  and  the current FY 2025-26, 03 surveys (02 New Line and 01 Doubling) of a total length of 146 km have been sanctioned falling fully/partly in the state of Uttarakhand.

*****