Lok Sabha Question No. 838 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2026-02-04
Subject: Upgradation of Jodhpur–Barmer Railway Line
Ministry: RAILWAYS
Asked by: Shri Ummeda Ram Beniwal

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 838 TO BE ANSWERED ON 04.02.2026

## UPGRADATION OF JODHPUR-BARMER RAILWAY LINE

## 838. SHRI UMMEDA RAM BENIWAL:

Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has any plan/proposal to upgrade the JodhpurBarmer railway line for enhanced passenger and freight movement and if so, the details thereof;
- (b)  the  details  of  the  proposed  upgradation,  including  electrification, doubling, speed enhancement, freight handling capacity and timelines; and
- (c)  whether  the  Government  has  assessed  the  likely  impact  of  such upgradation on promoting border trade, tourism and regional economic development in western Rajasthan and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF RAILWAYS, INFORMATION & BROADCASTING AND ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

(SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW)

- (a) to (c): Jodhpur-Luni-Samdari-Barmer (209 Km)  section has been electrified.  Jodhpur  -  Luni  section  (32  Km)  is  a  double  line  section.  To further  improve  the  connectivity,  doubling  with  electrification  of  Luni  Samdari section (Part of Luni - Samdari- Bhildi Doubling Project (272 Km)) on  Jodhpur  -  Barmer  Railway  line  has  been  taken  up.  Further  following surveys have been sanctioned to improve rail connectivity in the region:
- (i) Jaisalmer-Barmer-Bhildi New Line (380 Km)
- (ii) Balotra-Pachpadra New Line (11 Km)

## Rajasthan :

Budget allocation  in  the  recent  years  has  increased  significantly.  Budget allocation for infrastructure projects and safety works, falling fully/partly in the State of Rajasthan is as under:-

| Period   | Outlay                         |
|----------|--------------------------------|
| 2009-14  | ₹682 crore/year                |
| 2025-26  | ₹9,960 crore (Nearly 15 times) |

The details of commissioning/laying of new track falling fully/partly in the State of Rajasthan during 2009-14 and 2014-25 is as under:-

| Period   | New Track Commissioned   | Average commissioning of new tracks   |
|----------|--------------------------|---------------------------------------|
| 2009-14  | 798 Km                   | 159.60 Km/year                        |
| 2014-25  | 3,815 Km                 | 346.82 Km/year (More than 2 times)    |

As on 01.04.2025, 28 Railway projects (13 New Lines, 05 Gauge Conversion and 10 Doubling), of total length of 3,409 Km costing ₹43,918 crore falling fully/partly  in  the  State  of  Rajasthan  have  been  sanctioned,  out  of  which 1,238  Km  length  has  been  commissioned  and  an  expenditure  of  ₹18,954 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 (₹ in Cr)   |
|-------------------------|-------------------|------------------------|-------------------------------|-------------------------|
| New Lines               |                13 | 981                    | 196                           | 5769                    |
| Gauge Conversion        |                 5 | 1252                   | 788                           | 6829                    |
| Doubling/ Multitracking |                10 | 1176                   | 254                           | 6357                    |
| Total                   |                28 | 3,409                  | 1,238                         | 18,954                  |

Zonal Railway wise details of Railway Projects are made available in public domain on Indian Railways website.

Details of some of the recently completed projects falling fully/partly in the State of Rajasthan are as under:

|   S.No. | Name of Project                                              |   Latest Cost (₹ in crore) |
|---------|--------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------|
|       1 | Bangurgram-Ras New Line (28 km)                              |                        175 |
|       2 | ThaiyatHamira-Sonu New Line (58 Km)                          |                        350 |
|       3 | Suratpura- Sriganganagar Gauge Conversion (241 Km)           |                        896 |
|       4 | Sadulpur-Bikaner &Ratangarh-Degana Gauge Conversion (438 Km) |                        886 |
|       5 | Jaipur -Churu & Sikar-Loharu Gauge Conversion (320 Km)       |                       1105 |
|       6 | Bhagat ki Kothi-Luni Doubling (28 Km)                        |                        128 |
|       7 | Rani-Keshav Ganj Doubling (59 Km)                            |                        290 |
|       8 | Guriya-Marwar &Karjoda-Palanpur Doubling (49 Km)             |                        251 |
|       9 | Rani-Marwar Doubling (52 Km)                                 |                        346 |
|      10 | Abu Road-Swaroop Ganj Doubling (26 Km)                       |                        195 |
|      11 | Abu Road-Sarotra Road Doubling (24 Km)                       |                        152 |
|      12 | Alwar-Bandikui Doubling (60 Km)                              |                        450 |
|      13 | Ajmer-Bangurgram Doubling (48 Km)                            |                        375 |
|      14 | Bangurgram-Guriya Patch Doubling (47 Km)                     |                        395 |
|      15 | Degana-Rai ka Bagh Doubling (146 Km)                         |                        809 |
|      16 | Bina-Kota Doubling (283 Km)                                  |                       2476 |
|      17 | Nimach-Chittaurgarh Doubling (56 Km)                         |                        560 |
|      18 | Dausa-Gangapur City Doubling (93 Km)                         |                        950 |
|      19 | Phulera-Degana Doubling (108 Km)                             |                        702 |
|      20 | Churu-Ratangarh Doubling (43 Km)                             |                        423 |

Some  of  the  main  projects  falling  fully/partly  in  the  State  of  Rajasthan which have been taken up are as under:

|   S.No. | Name of Project                         |   Cost (₹ in crore) |
|---------|-----------------------------------------|---------------------|
|       1 | Nimach-Badi Sadri New Line (48 Km)      |                 495 |
|       2 | Taranga Hill-Abu Road New Line (116 Km) |                2798 |

|   3 | Ramganjmandi-Bhopal New Line (277 Km)                                       |   5073 |
|-----|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------|
|   4 | Pushkar-Merta New Line (51 Km)                                              |    800 |
|   5 | Ringus-Khatu Shyam Ji New Line (17 Km)                                      |    254 |
|   6 | Merta city-Ras New Line & Bye Pass at Merta Road Station (56 Km)            |    947 |
|   7 | Gwalior-Sheopurkalan Gauge Conversion with extension to Kota (284 Km)       |   2913 |
|   8 | Dholpur-Sirmuttra Gauge Conversion with extension to Gangapur City (145 Km) |    747 |
|   9 | Mavli-DevgarhMadariya Gauge Conversion (83 Km)                              |    969 |
|  10 | Mathura-Jhansi 3 rd Line (274 Km)                                           |   5924 |
|  11 | Agra Fort-Bandikui Doubling (150 Km)                                        |    988 |
|  12 | Sawaimadhopur-Jaipur Doubling (131 Km)                                      |   1204 |
|  13 | Churu-Sadulpur& Luni-Bhildi Doubling (330 Km)                               |   3554 |
|  14 | Ajmer-Chanderiya Doubling (178 Km)                                          |   1635 |
|  15 | Bye Pass line at Sawaimadhopur (14 Km)                                      |    304 |
|  16 | Rewari-Khatuwas Doubling (28 Km)                                            |    352 |
|  17 | Khatuwas-Narnaul Doubling (24 Km)                                           |    313 |
|  18 | Bye Pass line at Marwar (4 Km)                                              |     71 |
|  19 | Bypass line at Churu (5 Km)                                                 |     63 |
|  20 | Bypass line at Samdari (1 Km)                                               |     26 |
|  21 | Ramdevra-Pokhran new line (13 Km)                                           |    189 |
|  22 | Lalgarh-Bikaner East Cabin doubling (11 Km)                                 |    279 |

In  last  three  years,  2022-23,  2023-24,  2024-25  and  current  financial  year 2025-26, 59 surveys (25 new line & 34 doubling) of total length 5,666 Km falling  fully/partly  in  the  State  of  Rajasthan  have  been  sanctioned  in  the state of Rajasthan.

Sanction  of  any  railway  project  depends  upon  many  parameters/factors which include the following:

-  Anticipated traffic projections and Remunerativeness of the proposed route
-  First and last mile connectivity provided by the project
-  Connection of missing links and providing additional route

-  Augmentation of congested/saturated lines
-  Demands raised by State Governments/Central Ministries/Public representatives,
-  Railway's own operational requirements
-  Socio-economic considerations
-  Overall availability of funds

Completion of Railway project/s depends on various factors which include the following:

-  Land acquisition by State Government
-  Forest clearance
-  Shifting of infringing utilities
-  Statutory clearances from various authorities
-  Geological and topographical conditions of area
-  Law and order situation in the area of project 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.

Railway Infrastructure projects enable socio-economic development of the region including:

-  Better integration of the region with other parts of the country
-  Faster movement of goods and services
-  Improving logistics efficiency
-  Enhance line capacity
-  Increase  in  direct  and  indirect  employment  opportunities  for  the people of the region
-  Reduces operational bottlenecks
-  Development of tourism industry and increase in industrial activities in the region.

Upgradation and improvement of track infrastructure is a continuous and ongoing  process  over  Indian  Railways  including  Jodhpur-Barmer  railway line.  As  a  part  of  this,  permissible  speed  in  Jodhpur  -  Luni  and  Luni  Barmer sections have been raised to 110 kmph in March' 2016 and March' 2024  respectively.  The  following  measures  are  being  taken  by  Indian Railways to upgrade railway tracks:

- i. Modern  track  structure  consisting  of  60kg,  90  Ultimate  Tensile Strength  (UTS)  rails,  Wider  and  heavier  Pre-stressed  Concrete Sleepers (PSC) with elastic fastening, fan-shaped layout turnout on PSC sleepers and H-beam Sleepers on girder bridges are being used while carrying out primary track renewals.
- ii. The  Thick  Web  Switches  and  Weldable  CMS  Crossings  are  being
3. used in turnout renewal works.
- iii. Supply  of  260m  long  rail  panels  have  been  increased  to  avoid welding of joints, thereby improving safety.
- iv. Thick  Web  Switch  Expansion  Joints  are  being  used  in  place  of earlier Conventional/Improved SEJs.
- v. Adoption  of  better  welding  technology  for  rails  i.e.  Flash  Butt Welding.
- vi. Adoption  of  mechanized  system  for  track  maintenance  using  high output  plain  tampers  and  points  &  crossing  tampers  for  improved maintainability & reliability of track.
- vii. Deployment  of  state-of-the-art modern  machines  including  Rail Grinding Machines to further improve asset reliability.
- viii. Mechanisation  of track laying activities  through  use of track machines like PQRS, TRT, T-28 etc.
- ix. Interlocking of Level Crossing (LC) Gates for enhancing safety at LC gates.
- x. Use  of  advanced  Phased  Array  technology  of  testing  of  rail  and welds.
- xi. Deployment  of  Integrated  Track  Monitoring  Systems  (ITMS)  and Oscillation Monitoring  System  (OMS) for comprehensive  health assessment to ascertain optimal maintenance requirements.
- xii. Adoption of portable Track Measuring Trolley for continuous recording of track parameters in yards.
- xiii. Using web enabled Track Management System (TMS) for integration and data analytics of the track inspection records received through various sources to enable precise maintenance inputs.

Following the  introduction  of  the  Gati  Shakti  Multi-Modal  Cargo  Terminal (GCT)  policy  in  2021,  124  GCTs  have  already  been  commissioned  across the  country.  So  far,  07  GCTs  have  been  commissioned  in  the  state  of Rajasthan  in  the  districts  of  Nagaur,  Udaipur,  Chittorgarh,  Jaisalmer,

Jodhpur, Baran and Bhilwara.

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