(a) the location-wise details regarding doubling of railway lines being undertaken in the country, particularly in Bihar;
(b) the location-wise and railway line-wise details of the funds allocated and utilized for doubling of railway lines during the last three years in the State of Bihar; and
(c) the details of works of doubling of railway lines that are likely to be completed in Bihar during the current financial year?
MINISTER OF RAILWAYS AND COMMERCE & INDUSTRY
(SHRI PIYUSH GOYAL)
(a) to (c): Presently, 255 Doubling projects of length 20,500 Km costing `2.32 lakh crore are in different stages of planning/sanction/execution, out of which 2,784 Km length has been commissioned and an expenditure of `48,342 crore has been incurred till March 2019. Total outlay of `17,602 crore has been provided for the projects in financial year 2019-20. This includes 14 Doubling projects of 937.11 km costing `11,574 Crore falling fully/partly in Bihar.
Details of doubling projects in progress and new works including expenditure and outlay are made available in public domain on Indian Railways website i.e. www.indianrailways.gov.in >Ministry of Railways >Railway Board >About Indian Railways >Railway Board Directorates >Finance (Budget).
The timely completion of any Railway project depends on various factors like quick land acquisition by State Government, forest clearance by officials of forest department, shifting of infringing utilities (both underground and over ground), 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 due to climatic considerations, encountering unforeseen conditions like earthquake, flooding, excessive rains, strikes of labour, orders of Hon’ble Courts, situation and conditions of working agencies/contractors etc. All these factors vary from project to project and site to site and affect the completion time and cost of the project, which is finally worked out at the completion stage. Therefore, timeline for completion of projects cannot be given.
*****