Lok Sabha Question No. 2799 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-08-06
Subject: North Eastern Railway Connectivity Project
Ministry: RAILWAYS
Asked by: Shri Dilip Saikia, Shri Dineshbhai Makwana

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2799 TO BE ANSWERED ON 06.08.2025

## NORTH EASTERN RAILWAY CONNECTIVITY PROJECT

†2799.

SHRI DINESHBHAI MAKWANA: SHRI DILIP SAIKIA:

Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:-

- (a) the  details  of  the  status  of  North  Eastern  Railway  connectivity project at present; and
- (b) the  details  of  the  amount  invested  in  said  railway  project  along with the total length of railway lines made operational till 2024?

## ANSWER

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

(a) and (b):  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 throwforward of ongoing projects and overall availability of funds.

Zonal  Railway-wise  details  of  Railway  projects  are  made  available  in public domain on Indian Railway's website.

To augment and increase line capacity of rail network situated in North East Region, 12 Railway projects (08 New Lines, 04 Doubling), of total length  of  777  Km,  costing  ₹69,342  crore  falling  fully/partly  in  North Eastern  Region  (NER)  have  been  sanctioned,  out  of  which  278  Km length has been commissioned and an expenditure of ₹41,676 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, 2024 (₹ in Cr.)   |
|------------|-------------------|------------------------|-------------------------------|-------------------------------------------|
| New Lines  |                08 |                    448 |                           113 | 38,078                                    |
| Doubling   |                04 |                    329 |                           165 | 3,698                                     |
| Total      |                12 |                    777 |                           278 | 41,676                                    |

Average Budget allocation for Infrastructure projects and other works, falling fully/ partly in North Eastern Region (NER) is as under:-

| Period   | Outlay                         |
|----------|--------------------------------|
| 2009-14  | ₹2,122 crore/year              |
| 2025-26  | ₹10,440 crore ( about 5 times) |

Commissioning of sections (New Line, Gauge Conversion and Doubling) falling  fully/partly  in  North  Eastern  Region  (NER)  during  2009-14  and 2014-2025 is as under:-

| Period   | New track Commissioned   | Average commissioning of new tracks   |
|----------|--------------------------|---------------------------------------|
| 2009-14  | 333 Km                   | 66.6 Km/year                          |
| 2014-25  | 1,840 Km                 | 167.27 Km/year (about 3 times)        |

-:3:-

## Projects  commissioned  falling  fully/partly  in  North  East  Region  since 2014, are as under:

|   SN | Project                                                                   |   Cost (₹ in crore) |
|------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------|
|    1 | Bogibeel Bridge (92 Km.)                                                  |                5820 |
|    2 | Agartala-Sabroom (112 Km.) New Line                                       |                3170 |
|    3 | Agartala-Akaura (5 Km) New Line                                           |                 865 |
|    4 | Rangiya-Murkongselek (510 Km) Gauge Conversion                            |                3019 |
|    5 | Kumarghat-Agartala (109 Km) Gauge Conversion                              |                1242 |
|    6 | Katakhal-Bharabi (84 Km) Gauge Conversion                                 |                 348 |
|    7 | Lumding-Badarpur- Silchar & Badarpur- Kumarghat (412 Km) Gauge Conversion |                 673 |
|    8 | Lumding-Hojai (45 Km) Doubling                                            |                 410 |
|    9 | Digaru-Hojai (102 Km) Doubling                                            |                1873 |
|   10 | New Bongaigaon-Agthori (143 Km.) Doubling                                 |                2048 |

## Some of the main projects falling fully/partly in the North East Region which have been taken up are as under:-

|   SN | Name of the project                             |   Cost (₹ In crore) |
|------|-------------------------------------------------|---------------------|
|    1 | Jiribam-Imphal (111 Km) New Line                |               18562 |
|    2 | Dimapur-Kohima (82 Km) New Line                 |                6911 |
|    3 | Bhairabi-Sairang (51 Km) New Line               |                5521 |
|    4 | Murkongselek-Pasighat (27 Km) New Line          |                 980 |
|    5 | New Bongaigaon-Goalpara-Guwahati                |                2950 |
|    6 | Saraighat Bridge (7 Km) Doubling                |                1478 |
|    7 | Aluabari-Thakurganj (20 km) Doublng             |                 327 |
|    8 | Aluabari-New Jalpaiguri (57 km)3 rd & 4 th Line |                1786 |

Further, during  the last three years i.e. FY 2022-23, 2023-24, 2024-25 and the current FY, 17 surveys (13 New Line, and 4 Doubling) of total length 1790 Km. falling fully/ partly in the North East Region have been sanctioned under PM Gati Shakti NMP.  Some important surveys are as below:

|   SN | Name of Project                             |   Length in Kilometer |
|------|---------------------------------------------|-----------------------|
|    1 | Zubza-Imphal New Line                       |                   150 |
|    2 | Lanka - Silchar via Chandranathpur New Line |                   208 |
|    3 | Sairang-Hbichhuah (Mizoram) New Line        |                   223 |
|    4 | Agthori-Dekargaon New Line                  |                   130 |
|    5 | Tejpur-Silghat New Line                     |                    40 |
|    6 | Chandranathpur-Agartala Doubling            |                   244 |
|    7 | Guwahati-Lumding 3rd line                   |                   181 |
|    8 | New Jalpaiguri-Kamakhya 3 rd & 4 th Line    |                   421 |
|    9 | Katihar- Aluabari 3 rd & 4 th Line          |                   145 |

After firming up of DPR, sanctioning of project requires consultation  with  various  stake-holders  including  State  Governments and  necessary  approvals  viz.  appraisal  of  NITI  Aayog,  Ministry  of Finance  etc.  As  sanctioning  of  projects  is  a  continuous  and  dynamic process, exact timelines cannot be fixed.

Similarly,  to  augment  and  increase  line  capacity  of  rail  network situated in North Eastern Railway, as on 01.04.2025, total 17 Railway infrastructure  projects  (08  New  Line,  01  Gauge  Conversion  and  08 Doubling), of total length of 1,253 km, costing ` 20,466 crore on North Eastern Railway are sanctioned, out of which 354 km length has been commissioned and an expenditure of ` 10,486 crore has been incurred upto March 2025. The summary is as under:

| Category                |   No. of sanctioned projects |   Total length (Km) |   Length commissioned till Mar'25 (Km) |   Total expenditure upto March 2025 (Cr.) |
|-------------------------|------------------------------|---------------------|----------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------|
| New Line                |                            8 |                 656 |                                     48 |                                      4042 |
| Gauge Conversion        |                            1 |                  56 |                                      0 |                                       260 |
| Doubling /Multitracking |                            8 |                 541 |                                    306 |                                      6184 |
| Total                   |                           17 |                1253 |                                    354 |                                     10486 |

## Details  of  some  of  the  recently  completed  projects  on  North  Eastern Railway are as under:

|   SN | Name of Project                                 |   Latest Cost (Cr.) |
|------|-------------------------------------------------|---------------------|
|    1 | Ghazipur city-Tarighat new line (17 Km)         |                1766 |
|    2 | Indara-Dohrighat gauge conversion (34 Km)       |                 213 |
|    3 | Lucknow-Pilibhit gauge conversion (263 Km)      |                1634 |
|    4 | Ballia-Gazipur city doubling (65 Km)            |                 650 |
|    5 | Aunrihar-Jaunpur doubling (60 Km)               |                 405 |
|    6 | Malhaur-Daliganj doubling (13 Km)               |                 183 |
|    7 | Rosa-Sitapur Cantt-Burhwal doubling (181 Km)    |                2094 |
|    8 | Varanasi-Madhosingh-Allahabad doubling (120 Km) |                2018 |
|    9 | Aishbagh-Manaknagar doubling (4 Km)             |                  82 |

## Some of the main projects on North Eastern Railway, which have been taken up, are as under:

|   SN | Project                                          |   Cost (Cr.) |
|------|--------------------------------------------------|--------------|
|    1 | Anandnagar - Ghughuli via Maharajganj new line   |          958 |
|    2 | Etah - Kasganj new line (29 Km)                  |          389 |
|    3 | Gorakhpur Cantt - Valmiki Nagar Doubling (96 Km) |         1121 |
|    4 | Barabanki-Burhwal 3rd line (27 Km)               |          426 |
|    5 | Mankapur-Tikri doubling (28 Km)                  |          280 |

Total 46 surveys (5 New Line, 2 Gauge Conversion and 39 Doubling), of total length of  1878 Km  on  North Eastern Railway, have been sanctioned during last three  years (2022-2023, 2023-2024, 2024-2025) and current financial year.

Completion of Railway project/s depends on various factors like quick 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  etc.  All  these factors affect the completion time and cost of the project/s.

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