Lok Sabha Question No. 3147 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2026-03-11
Subject: Budget Allocation for West Bengal
Ministry: RAILWAYS
Asked by: Smt. June Maliah, Shri Kalyan Banerjee

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## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3147

## TO BE ANSWERED ON 11.03.2026

## BUDGET ALLOCATION FOR WEST BENGAL

3147. SMT. JUNE MALIAH: SHRI KALYAN BANERJEE:

Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:

- (a)  the  State-wise  details  of  the  amount  allocated  (in  Rs.)  for  Railway budget during the years 2014 and 2026;
- (b)  the  details  of  the  total  allocation  of  Budget  for  Rail projects  for  West Bengal in comparison to other States along with the projects proposed/expected project outcomes and the expected year of completion;
- (c) whether it is a fact that the average railway budget to Gujarat increased 29  times,  Delhi  increased  by  28  times,  Chhattisgarh  and  Madhya Pradesh  increased  by  24  times,  Maharashtra  increased  by  20  times, Tamil Nadu increased by 9 times and West Bengal increased by 3 times;
- (d)  the  details  of  high  speed  corridors  that  will  pass  through  the  State including expected deadline of completion thereof;
- (e) the zone-wise details of railway projects and expansion being implemented in West Bengal since 2020; and
- (f) the train-wise details of the progress on the deployment of the 'Kavach' automatic train protection system on major routes within the State?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF RAILWAYS, INFORMATION & BROADCASTING AND

ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW)

- (a):   Gross Budgetary Allocation for Railway has increased approximately
- 8 times from Rs. 32,300 crore in 2014-15 to Rs. 2,52,200 crore in 2025-26.

(b), (c) & (e): Budget  allocation in the recent years has increased significantly  over  entire  Indian  Railways.  Budget  allotment  of  projects  is made  commensurate  to  its  readiness  for  execution  and  considering  the progress achieved in the projects.

Budget  allocation  for  infrastructure  projects  and  safety  works,  falling fully/partly in the State of West Bengal is as under:-

| Period   | Outlay                             |
|----------|------------------------------------|
| 2009-14  | Rs.4,380 Cr./year                  |
| 2025-26  | Rs. 13,955 Cr. (More than 3 times) |

As on 01.04.2025, 42 projects (12 New Lines, 04 Gauge Conversions and 26 Doubling), of total length of  4402  Km,  costing  ₹67,991  crore  falling fully/partly in the State of West Bengal are sanctioned, out of which, 1702 km length has been commissioned and an expenditure of ₹23,410 crore has been incurred upto March, 2025. The summary is as under:

| Category                 |   No. of projects | Total Length (in Km)   | Length Commissioned till March, 2025 (in Km)   | Total Exp. upto March, 2025 (Rs. in Cr.)   |
|--------------------------|-------------------|------------------------|------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------|
| New Lines                |                12 | 1,032                  | 337                                            | 11,368                                     |
| Gauge Conversion         |                 4 | 1,201                  | 854                                            | 3,673                                      |
| Doubling/Multi -tracking |                26 | 2,169                  | 511                                            | 8,370                                      |
| Total                    |                42 | 4,402                  | 1,702                                          | 23,410                                     |

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

|   S. No. | Project                                                               | Cost (Rs. in Cr.)   |
|----------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------|
|        1 | Rampurhat-Mandarhill new line and Rampurhat-Murarai 3rd line (159 Km) | 1,500               |
|        2 | Azimganj-Murshidabad new line (7 Km)                                  | 164                 |

|   3 | Bardhaman-Katwa Gauge Conversion (52 Km)       |   696 |
|-----|------------------------------------------------|-------|
|   4 | Ahmedpur-Katwa Gauge Conversion (52 Km)        |   440 |
|   5 | Panskura Kharagpur Doubling (45 Km)            |   408 |
|   6 | Lalgola - Jiaganj Doubling (23 Km)             |   124 |
|   7 | Krishnanagar-Bethuadahari Doubling (28 Km)     |   152 |
|   8 | Nabadwipdham-Patuli Doubling (22 Km)           |   170 |
|   9 | Bethuadhahari-Plassey Doubling (23 km)         |   132 |
|  10 | Ambikakalna-Nabadwipdham Doubling (23 km)      |   145 |
|  11 | Nalhati-Sagardighi Doubling (26 km)            |   193 |
|  12 | Tamluk Jn.- BasulyaSutahata Doubling (24 km)   |   245 |
|  13 | Plassey- Jiaganj Doubling (54 km)              |   234 |
|  14 | Azimganj-Manigram Doubling (21 km)             |   150 |
|  15 | New Coochbehar-Gumanihat Doubling (29 km)      |   330 |
|  16 | New Coochbehar-Samuktala Road Doubling (29 km) |   445 |
|  17 | Sainthia-Tarapith 3rd line (22 Km)             |   186 |
|  18 | Ambari Falakata-New Maynaguri Doubling (37 km) |   843 |
|  19 | Bandel-Boinchi - 3rd line (31 km)              |   546 |
|  20 | Boinchi-Shaktigarh 3rd line (26 km)            |   424 |
|  21 | Bazar Sau-Azimganj Jn. Doubling (42 km)        |   343 |
|  22 | Sagardighi- Malda Town Doubling (25 Km)        |   248 |
|  23 | Kharagpur-Narayangarh 3rd line (24 km)         |   270 |
|  24 | Monigram-Nimtita Doubling (24 Km)              |   713 |
|  25 | Purulia-Kotshila Doubling (36 Km)              |   393 |

## Some of the projects falling fully/partly in the State of West Bengal which have been taken up are as under:

|   SN. | Project                                               | Cost (Rs. in Cr.)   |
|-------|-------------------------------------------------------|---------------------|
|     1 | Chandil-Purulia-Anara-Damodar 3rd Line(121 Km)        | 1,932               |
|     2 | Tarakeshwar-Bishnupur New Line (83 Km)                | 1,542               |
|     3 | Sivok-Rangpo New Line (44 Km)                         | 11,973              |
|     4 | Balurghat-Hilli New Line (30 Km)                      | 1,209               |
|     5 | Kaliyaganj-Buniadpur New Line (33 Km)                 | 1,147               |
|     6 | Katihar-Kumedpur and Katihar-Mukuria Doubling (65 Km) | 943                 |
|     7 | Kharagpur-Adityapur 3rd line (132 Km)                 | 3,250               |
|     8 | Narayangarh-Bhadrak 3rd line (153 Km)                 | 2,136               |

|   9 | Kalipahari-Bakhtarnagar 5th Line (18Km)         | 350   |
|-----|-------------------------------------------------|-------|
|  10 | Dankuni-Baltikuri 3rd & 4th line (18 Km)        | 429   |
|  11 | Murarai-Barharwa 3rd Line (49 Km)               | 935   |
|  12 | Ranaghat-Krishnanagar City 3rd Line (26 Km)     | 446   |
|  13 | Aluabari Road-New Jalpaiguri 3rd & 4th Line (57 | 1,630 |

Execution of important infrastructure projects falling fully/partly in the State of West Bengal are held up due to delay in land acquisition. Status of land acquisition in West Bengal is as under:

| Total Land required         | 4,662 Ha       |
|-----------------------------|----------------|
| Land Acquired               | 1,273 Ha (27%) |
| Balance Land to be acquired | 3,389 Ha (73%) |

## Details of some major projects which are delayed due to land acquisition are as under:

|   SN | Name of the project                 |   Total land required (in Ha) |   Land acquired (in Ha) |   Balance Land to be acquired (in Ha) |   Amount Paid to State (in Cr.) |
|------|-------------------------------------|-------------------------------|-------------------------|---------------------------------------|---------------------------------|
|    1 | Chandil-Anara- Burnpur - 3rd line   |                             8 |                       0 |                                     8 |                            0    |
|    2 | Nabadwipghat- Nabadwipdham new line |                           107 |                       0 |                                   107 |                           50    |
|    3 | Byepass at Sainthia                 |                            22 |                       0 |                                    22 |                            0    |
|    4 | Naihati - Ranaghat 3rd line         |                            13 |                       0 |                                    13 |                            1.3  |
|    5 | Sivok-Rangpo new line               |                           135 |                     128 |                                     7 |                            7.98 |
|    6 | Kaliyaganj-Buniadpur new line       |                           168 |                       0 |                                   168 |                            0    |
|    7 | Canning- Bagankhali new line        |                            18 |                       0 |                                    18 |                            0    |
|    8 | Adra- Sanka- Rukni doubling         |                             5 |                       0 |                                     5 |                            0    |
|    9 | Kalipahari- Bakhtarnagar 5th line   |                            15 |                       0 |                                    15 |                            0    |

|   10. | Rail Flyover at Anara from Rukni to Anara station   |   35 |   0 |   35 |   0 |
|-------|-----------------------------------------------------|------|-----|------|-----|
|    11 | Rail Flyover at Gourinathdham end to Purulia        |   34 |   0 |   34 |   0 |
|    12 | ChandanpurShaktigarh 4th Line                       |    5 |   0 |    5 |   0 |

Further, Tarakeshwar-Bishnupur (83 Km) New Line Project is held up since 2016 due to non-cooperation by state Govt. of West Bengal. The work was stopped by local villagers in about 900 m length near 'Bhabadighi' pond in Hooghly  district.  Honourable  High  Court,  Kolkata  in  March,  2025  directed State  Govt  of  WB  to  provide  all  necessary  support  and  deploy  adequate police force to enable the Railways to commence the work within 3 months.

Deshpran -Nandigram (18.5 km) Line was sanctioned in 2009-10 at cost of ₹ 121.44  crores.  The  entire  Project  length  is  located  in  East  Midnapore District. The project could not progress due to problems in land acquisition and was kept in abeyance. In April 2023 it was decided to re-start the work. However, Survey for Land Acquisition from Deshpran to 5.0 Km could not be completed  due  to  law  and  order  issues.  As  Deshpran  is  the  connecting station,  acquisition  of  this  land  is  essential  for  commissioning  of  this project.

Several  meetings  have  been  held  with  officials  of  Government  of  West Bengal for land acquisition for the above projects.

Kolkata Metro:

Metro  project in Kolkata  started in 1972. The  details of the Metro commissioned since then are as under:

| Period                   | Metro Commissioned   |
|--------------------------|----------------------|
| 1972 to 2014 ( 42 years) | 28 km                |
| 2014 to 2025 ( 11 years) | 45 km                |

Presently, 4  metro corridors of total 52 km are under construction in and around Kolkata out of which 20 Km is held up due to land acquisition and utility  shifting issues pertaining to State Government. The status of these corridors is as given below:

- (i) Joka  -  Esplanade  (14  km):-  Joka  -  Majerhat  (7.74  km)  has  been commissioned and balance work from Majerhat to Esplanade (6.62 km) has been  taken  up.  However,  progress  of  the  work  is  affected  due  to  the following issues:
- (ii) New Garia  - Dum Dum Airport (32 km): New Garia - Belaghata (9.8 km) has been commissioned and balance work from Belaghata to Dum Dum Airport  (22.2  km)  has  been  taken  up.  However,  progress  of  the  work  is affected due to the following issues:
- (iii) Noapara - Barasat (18 km): Noapara- Jai Hind Airport (6.77 km) has been commissioned and work from Jai Hind Airport to Michael Nagar is in progress. However, work from New Barrackpore to Barasat (7.5 Km) is held up due to land acquisition and encroachment issues by State authorities.
- (iv) Baranagar  -  Barrackpore  -  Dakshineshwar  (14.5  km):Baranagar  Dakshineshwar    (2  km)  has  been  commissioned  and  balance  work  from Baranagar to Barrackpore (12.5 Km) is held up due to pending utility shifting in the alignment by state government authorities.

|   S.No. | Location                 | Issues                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    |
|---------|--------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|       1 | Khidderpur Metro Station | 1. 837 square meter permanent and 1702 sq.m. temporary land of Kolkata Armed Police (KAP) was required for utility shifting and road traffic diversion for which proposal was sent to State Government on 24.08.2020. 2. Multiple meetings with officials of Government of West Bengal (GoWB) were held. 3. State Government finally accorded approval on 09.07.2025 after almost 5 years.                                                                                                                                |
|       2 | Dr. B.C. Roy Market      | 1.For construction of Esplanade Metro Station, temporary shifting of unauthorised 528 Shops at B.C. Roy Market on Defence land was required. The proposal for NOC of temporary shifting of market was submitted in February, 2022. 2.Shops for temporary shifting were also constructed. 3. The State Government has been requested to facilitate shifting. Regular coordination with PWD is being done also, a meeting was held with Hon'ble Mayor of Kolkata on 30.07.2025. 4.Issue is pending for more than 3.5 years. |

|   S.No. | Location                       | Issues                                                                                                                                  |
|---------|--------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|       1 | Chingrighata Crossing (Between | 1.Temporary traffic diversion at Chingrighata crossing for launching of viaduct segments is required for 3 + 3 nights (8 hours each) on |

| Beleghata - Gour Kishore Ghosh station)   | each side of road alternately. The proposal was submitted to Government of West Bengal (GoWB) in February, 2025. 2. The diversion road as desired by Kolkata traffic police has already been constructed in February, 2025. 3.Multiple meetings were held with various State Government and Kolkata police officials for NOC. 4.The NOC is still awaited even after about 10 months.   |
|-------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

|   S.No. | Location                   | Issues                                                                                                                                                                 |
|---------|----------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|       1 | New Barrackpore to Barasat | 1.Land acquisition (23000 sq. m) and removal of heavy encroachments (1277 hutments, 764 shops) are involved in this section. 2.The matter is not yet resolved by GoWB. |

|   S.No. | Location                 | Issues                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       |
|---------|--------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|       1 | Baranagar to Barrackpore | 1.The original alignment along the B.T road was agreed in 2011 as per MoU between Metro Railway, RVNL and Kolkata Municipal Corporation. 2.As per MoU, existing pipeline was to be replaced by new 64 inch pipeline by the State Government. 3.Shifting of 64 inch pipeline was completed in |

| 2012. 4.Now, the State Government is insisting for construction of a new 90 inch pipeline costing about ₹1400 crore. 5.The demand is not covered under the cost of the project and MoU provisions. 6.NOC is still awaited from GoWB.   |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

ROBs/RUBs: Out of 302 Nos. sanctioned ROB/RUB works in West Bengal, 99 Nos. ROB/RUB works are delayed on account of the State Govt. The details are as under:

| SN   | Reason                                    |   ROB/RUB works (in Nos.) |
|------|-------------------------------------------|---------------------------|
| 1.   | Finalization of Alignment                 |                        41 |
| 2.   | General Arrangement Drawing stage         |                        14 |
| 3.   | NOC for closure of LC                     |                        27 |
| 4.   | Land Acquisition                          |                        10 |
| 5.   | Law & Order/ Public Protest               |                         7 |
|      | Total held up due to Govt. of West Bengal |                        99 |

Completion & commissioning of ROB/RUB works depends on various factors like cooperation of  State Governments in giving  consent for closure of LC, fixing  of  approach  alignment,  approval  of  General  Arrangement  Drawing (GAD),  land  acquisition,  removal  of  encroachment,  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.

Government  of  India  is  geared  up  to  execute  projects,  however  success depends upon the support of Government of West Bengal. Sanction of any railway  project  depend  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 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.

Budgetary allocations are made considering all these factors.

- (d): Presently, the Mumbai - Ahmedabad High Speed Rail (MAHSR) Project (508 km) is under execution with technical and financial assistance from Government of Japan.

Further,  to  strengthen  the national transport infrastructure  and provide a fillip to regional economic growth, the Government has proposed the development of following seven new High-Speed Rail (HSR) corridors in the Union Budget 2026-27:-

- i. Mumbai - Pune
2. ii.
3. Pune - Hyderabad
4. iii.
5. iv.
6. v.
7. Hyderabad - Bengaluru
8. Hyderabad - Chennai
9. Chennai - Bengaluru
- vi. Delhi - Varanasi
- vii. Varanasi - Siliguri

Out of the above, Varanasi-Siliguri corridor passes through the state of West Bengal. However, the decision to sanction any HSR Corridor/Project being highly capital intensive depends on many factors such as outcome of

- Ministries/Public

DPR, techno-economic feasibility studies and availability of resources such as financing options etc.

(f):

1. Kavach is an indigenously developed Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system. Kavach is a highly technology intensive system, which requires safety certification of highest order (SIL-4).
2. Kavach aids the Loco Pilot in running of trains within specified speed limits by automatic application of brakes in case Loco Pilot fails to do so and also helps the trains to run safely during inclement weather.
3. The first  field  trials  on  the  passenger  trains  were  started  in  February 2016. Based on the experience gained and Independent Safety Assessment of the system by Independent Safety Assessor (ISA), three
4. firms were approved in 2018-19, for supply of Kavach Ver 3.2.
4. Kavach was adopted as National ATP system in July, 2020.
5. Implementation of Kavach System involves following Key Activities:
- a. Installation  of  Station  Kavach  at  each  and  every  station,  block section.
8. b.
9. Installation of RFID Tags throughout the track length.
- c. Installation of telecom Towers throughout the section.
11. d.
12. Laying of Optical Fibre Cable along the track.
- e. Provision of Loco Kavach on each and every Locomotive running on Indian Railways.
6. Based  on  deployment  of  Kavach  version  3.2  on  1465  RKm  on  South Central  Railway  and  experience  gained,  further  improvements  were made. Finally, Kavach specification version 4.0 was approved by RDSO on 16.07.2024.
7. Kavach version 4.0 covers all the major features required for the diverse railway  network.  This  is  a  significant  milestone  in  safety  for  Indian Railways.  Within  a  short  period,  IR  has  developed,  tested  and  started deploying Automatic Train Protection System.
8. Major improvement in Version 4.0 includes increased Location Accuracy,  Improved  Information  of  Signal  Aspects  in  bigger  yards,

Station  to  Station  Kavach  interface  on  OFC  and  Direct  Interface  to existing  Electronic  Interlocking  System.  With  these  improvements, Kavach  Ver.4.0.  is  planned  for  large  scale  deployment  over  Indian Railways.

9. After  extensive  and  elaborate  trials,  Kavach  Version  4.0  has  been successfully  commissioned  on  1452  Route  Kilometres,  covering  the high  density  Delhi-  Mumbai  and  Delhi-Howrah  routes.  On  the  DelhiMumbai  route  Kavach  ver  4.0  has  been  commissioned  on  Junction cabin-Palwal-Mathura-Nagda  section  (667  Rkm)  &  Vadodara-  Virar section (336 Rkm), and Vadodara - Ahmedabad section (96 Rkm) and on the Delhi-Howrah route Kavach ver 4.0 has been commissioned on Gaya Sarmatanr  section  (93  Rkm)  and  Howrah-Bardhaman-  Chota  Ambana section (260 Rkm).
10. Within the state of West Bengal, Kavach Ver 4.0 has been commissioned  from  Howrah  to  Barakar  (229  RKm)  which  lies  in  the important Delhi - Howrah Route.
11. Further, track side Kavach implementation work has been taken up on  24,427  RKM  covering  all  GQ,  GD,  HDN  and  identified  sections  of Indian Railways.
12. Progress  of  key  items  of  Kavach  on  High  density  routes  including Delhi- Mumbai & Delhi- Howrah corridors as on 28.02.26 are as under:
13. In addition, Work for installation of Kavach on 8979 Locomotives and 1200 EMU/MEMU Rakes has been taken up.
14. Specialized  training  programmes  on  Kavach  are  being  conducted at centralized training institutes of Indian Railways to impart training to all concerned officials. By now more than 55,000 technicians, operators and engineers have been trained on Kavach technology. This includes about
7. 47,500 Loco Pilots & Assistant Loco Pilots CLIs and Instructors. Courses have been designed in collaboration with IRISET.
15. The cost for  provision  of  Track  Side  including  Station  equipment  of Kavach  is  approximately  Rs.  50  Lakhs/Km  and  cost  for  provision  of Kavach equipment on locomotives is approximately Rs. 80 Lakh/Loco.
16. The funds utilized on Kavach works so far up to Feb'26 is Rs. 2,763.90 Crores.  The  allocation  of  funds  during  the  year  2025-26  is  Rs.  1673.19 Crores. Requisite funds are made available as per the progress of works.

| SN   | Item                                 | Progress   |
|------|--------------------------------------|------------|
| i    | Laying of Optical Fibre Cable        | 8570 Km    |
| ii   | Installation of Telecom Towers       | 1100 nos   |
| iii  | Station Data Centre                  | 767 nos    |
| iv   | Installation of Track side equipment | 6776 RKm   |
| v    | Provision of Kavach in Loco          | 4154 nos   |

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