Lok Sabha Question No. 538 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-07-23
Subject: Status of Railway Projects in Bhagalpur
Ministry: RAILWAYS
Asked by: Shri Ajay Kumar Mandal

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 538 TO BE ANSWERED ON 23.07.2025

## STATUS OF RAILWAY PROJECTS IN BHAGALPUR

†538. SHRI  AJAY KUMAR MANDAL:

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

- (a) the details of the major railway projects (such as station redevelopment,  new  line,  track  doubling,  bridge,  Vande  Bharat  train facility)  currently  being  implemented  or  proposed  in  Bhagalpur  Lok Sabha constituency at present;
- (b) the details of financial approval, amount sanctioned, current status (such as DPR prepared, land acquired, under construction or completed) and likely timeline of each project;
- (c)  the  details  of  the  updated  status  of  Navgachhiya,  Shivnarayanpur, Sabour,  Pirpainti  and  Kahalgaon  station  under  Amrit  Bharat  Yojana along with the amount spent on it;
- (d)  whether  a  new  terminal  station  is  proposed  to  be  constructed  at Bhagalpur  and  if  so,  the  details  along  with  the  cost,  location  (e.g. Jagdishpur) and present status of construction thereof; and
- (e)  whether any special committee, report or review system has been framed  at  Railway  Board/DRM  level  for  monitoring  supervision  of  the projects and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF RAILWAYS, INFORMATION & BROADCASTING AND

## ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW)

- (a) to  (e):  Ministry  of  Railways  has  launched  Amrit  Bharat  Station Scheme for redevelopment of stations. So far, 1337 stations have been identified   for   development   under   Amrit   Bharat   Station   Scheme.

Presently  Phase-I  work  of  105  stations  have  been  completed  and commissioned and works have been taken up at 1110 stations.

Further,  98  stations  located  in  state  of  Bihar  including  Bhagalpur, Naugachia,  Shivanarayanpur,  Sabaur,  Pirpainti  and  Kahalgaon  railway stations  have  been  identified  for  development  under  Amrit  Bharat Station Scheme.

The progress at some of these stations is as given below:

At Pirpainti, phase-I work i.e. improvement to station building elevation, portico, concourse area, circulating area, improvement of waiting hall, construction of new pay & use toilet, signages and divyangjan facilities have been completed. The work of construction of foot over bridge has been taken up.

At Naugachia, the works for foundation of platform shelter, earthwork in circulating area have been completed and the works of new station building, construction of platform shelter and new foot over bridge have been taken up.

At  Shivanarayanpur,  the  works  of  station  elevation,  concourse  area, improvement  to  waiting  hall,  provision  of  coach  and  train  indication boards,  Visual  display  boards,  signages  have  been  completed  and works of circulating area, Pay & Use Toilet,  construction of new foot over bridge have been taken up.

At  Sabaur,  the  works  of  OFC  building,  improvement  of  waiting  halls have  been  completed  and  the  works  of  station  building  elevation including portico, circulating area, concourse area, improvement to 2nd class waiting hall, provision of coach and train indication board, Visual display  boards,  signages,  construction  of  new  foot  over  bridge    have been taken up.

At Kahalgaon, the works of improvement to waiting hall, construction of new pay & use toilet, divyangjan facilities and provision of signages have been completed and the works of improvement to station building elevation including portico, circulating area, concourse area, installation of Visual display boards and construction of new foot over bridge have been taken up.

Master  planning  for  development  of  Bhagalpur  railway  station  under Amrit  Bharat  Station  Scheme  has  been  taken  up.  This  is  an  iterative process requiring optimization and the time frame for such optimization cannot be indicated at this stage.

The Amrit Bharat Station scheme envisages development of stations on a continuous basis with a long-term approach. It involves preparation of master  plans  and  their  implementation  in  phases  to  improve  the amenities at the stations like improvement of station access, circulating  areas,  waiting  halls,  toilets,  lift/escalators  as  necessary, platform  surfacing  and  cover  over  platform,  cleanliness,  free  Wi-Fi, kiosks  for  local  products  through  schemes  like  'One  Station  One Product',  better  passenger  information  systems,  executive  lounges, nominated spaces for business meetings, landscaping, etc. keeping in view the necessity at each station.

The  scheme  also  envisages  improvement  of  building,  integrating  the station with both sides of the city, multimodal integration, amenities for Divyangjans, sustainable and environment friendly solutions, provision of ballastless tracks, etc. as per necessity, phasing and feasibility and creation of city centre at the station in the long term.

Development/upgradation of stations on Indian Railways is a continuous and ongoing process and works in this regard are undertaken as per requirement, subject to inter-se priority and availability of funds. The priority for development/upgradation of stations is accorded to higher category of station over lower category of    station   while   sanctioning   and   executing   the   works.

..4/-

Development  /  upgradation  of  stations  including  under  Amrit  Bharat Station  Scheme  is  generally  funded  under  Plan  Head-53  'Customer Amenities'. The details of allocation under Plan Head-53 are maintained Zonal  Railway-wise  and  not  work-wise  or  station-wise  or  State-wise. Bhagalpur  Parliamentary  Constituency  falls  under  the  jurisdiction  of East Central Railway and Eastern Railways for which a total allocation of ₹942 crores (Budget Estimate) has been made for the financial year 2025-26 under Plan Head-53.

Further, development/redevelopment/upgradation of Railway Stations is complex in nature involving safety of passengers & trains and requires various  statutory  clearances  such  as  fire  clearance,  heritage,  tree cutting, airport clearance etc. The  progress also gets affected due to brown  field  related  challenges  such  as  shifting  of  utilities,  (involving water/sewage  lines,  optical  fiber  cables,  gas  pipe  lines,  power/signal cables etc.,) infringements, operation of trains without hindering passenger  movement,  speed  restrictions  due  to  works  carried  out  in close  proximity  of  high  voltage  power  lines  etc.  and  these  factors affect the completion time. Therefore, no time frame can be indicated at this stage.

Railway  infrastructural  Projects  in  the  State  of  Bihar  are  covered  by East Central Railway (ECR), Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR), Eastern Railway  (ER),  North  Eastern  Railway  (NER)  Zone  of  Indian  Railways. Zonal  Railway  wise  details  of  Railway  projects  are  made  available  in public domain on Indian Railway's website.

Sanctioning and execution of works of Road Over Bridges/ Road Under Bridges (ROBs/RUBs) in lieu of LCs is a continuous and ongoing process on  Indian  Railways.  Such  works  are  prioritized  and  taken  up  on  the basis of its impact on safety and mobility in train operations and impact on road users.

No.  of  ROBs/RUBs  constructed  on  Indian  Railways  during  the  period 2004-14 vis-a-vis 2014-26 (June'25) is as under:

| Period                 | ROBs/RUBs constructed                            |
|------------------------|--------------------------------------------------|
| 2004-14                | 4148                                             |
| 2014-26 (upto June'25) | 13426 (including 558 Nos. in the state of Bihar) |

As on dt. 01.04.2025, 4402 Nos. ROBs/ RUBs are sanctioned at the cost of Rs. 1,00,860 crore on Indian Railways including 218 Nos. Road Over Bridge (ROB)/Road Under Bridge (RUB) at the cost of Rs. 6014 crore in the  State  of  Bihar,  which  are  at  various  stages  of  planning  and execution. Out of these, 05 Nos. ROBs/RUBs  are  sanctioned in Bhagalpur Constituency. Details are as under:-

| Sanctioned RUBs/ROBs   | Sanctioned RUBs/ROBs                      | Sanctioned RUBs/ROBs   | Sanctioned RUBs/ROBs   | Sanctioned RUBs/ROBs                                                                                                       |
|------------------------|-------------------------------------------|------------------------|------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| S.N.                   | Location                                  | ROB/ RUB/ FOB          | Cost (in Rs. Cr.)      | Remarks                                                                                                                    |
| 1                      | LC No. 1/A on Bhagalpur- Jamalpur section | ROB                    | 90                     | The work of ROB has been sanctioned. The works of preparation of GAD and Detailed Estimate have been                       |
| 2                      | LC No. 6 on Bhagalpur- Pirpainti section  | ROB                    | 82                     | taken up.                                                                                                                  |
| 3                      | LC No. 9 on Bhagalpur- Jamalpur section   | ROB                    | 81                     |                                                                                                                            |
| 4                      | LC No. 11/spl on Katihar- Barauni section | ROB                    | 42                     | The work of ROB has been sanctioned. The work of Railway portion has been completed and approach portion has been taken up |
| 5                      | LC No. 5 on Sahibganj- Bhaglapur section  | LHS                    | 6                      | The work of ROB has been sanctioned. GAD has been approved. The work has been taken up.                                    |

Completion  and  commissioning  of  ROB/RUB  works  depend  on  various factors  like  cooperation  of   State  Governments  in  giving   consent  for closure  of  LCs,   fixing  of  approach  alignment,  approval  of  General Arrangement Drawing (GAD), land acquisition, removal of encroachments,  shifting  of  infringing  utilities,  statutory  clearances from  various  authorities,   law  and  order  situation  in the area  of project/work  sites,   duration  of  working  season  in  a  year  for  the particular project/area  due to climatic conditions etc.  All these factors affect the completion time of the projects / works.

As  on  01.04.2025,  52  projects  (31  New  Lines,  01  Gauge  Conversions and 20 Doubling), of a total length of 4,663 km, costing Rs.86,107 crore, falling fully/partly in Bihar, are sanctioned, out of which 1,014 km length has  been  commissioned  and  an  expenditure  of  Rs.  29,353  crore  has been  incurred  upto  March'  2025  including  those  falling  fully/partly  in Bhagalpur. At present in the vicinity of Bhagalpur some railway projects namely  (i) Vikramshila-Katareah  New  Line  (26  Km)  with  Bridge  over River Ganga, (ii) Sultanganj-Katuria New Line (77 Km) and (iii) PirpaintiJasidih New Line (97 Km) have been taken up to further improve Rail connectivity in the area.

At  present  104  train  service  including,  02  Vande  Bharat  services  are catering  to  the  needs  of  passengers  of  Bhagalpur.  These  services include  the  service  of  22309/22310  Howrah-Bhagalpur  Vande  Bharat Express which has been introduced w.e.f. 15.09.2024. Besides, introduction  of  train  services,  including  Vande  Bharat  Express,  is  an ongoing  process  on  Indian  Railways  subject  to  traffic  justification, operational feasibility, resource availability etc.

The  DPR  of  'New  Bhagalpur  station  with  Coaching  Facility'  has  been prepared by Eastern Railway with project cost as Rs. 310.45 crore.

Railway projects are surveyed/sanctioned/executed Zonal Railway wise and  not  State-wise  as  the  Railways'  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, socio-economic considerations etc. depending upon throw forward of ongoing projects and overall availability of funds.

Completion  of  any  Railway  project/s  depends  on  various  factors  like quick  land  acquisition  by  State  Government,  forestry  clearance  by officials  of  forest  department,  deposition  of  State  share  by  the  State Government  in  cost  sharing  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  and  all  these  factors  affect  the completion time of the project/s. With above constraints, every effort is being made to complete these projects at the earliest.

Monitoring  of  projects  is  done  at  various  levels  including  through dedicated  portal  of  Indian  Railways  named  Indian  Railway  Project Sanction and Management (IRPSM). The issues faced by the executing units are accordingly addressed.

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