(a) whether the Government has prepared any scheme to complete the railway projects stalled by the State Governments due to lack of budget, at the earliest;
(b) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor; and
(c) the details of the railway projects stalled by the States/UTs including Ramganj mandi railway line in Rajgarh, Madhya Pradesh State/UT/project-wise?
MINISTER OF RAILWAYS, COMMUNICATIONS AND
ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
(SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW)
(a) to (c): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (c) OF UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2964 BY SHRI RODMAL NAGAR TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 15.12.2021 REGARDING STALLED RAILWAY PROJECTS
(a) & (b): As on 01.04.2021 across Indian Railways, 484 Railway projects (187 New Line, 46 gauge Conversion and 251 Doubling) of 51,165 Km length, costing approx. `7.53 lakh crore are in different stages of planning/sanction/execution, out of which, 10,638 Km length has been commissioned and an expenditure of approx. `2.14 lakh crore has been incurred upto March, 2021.
Out of these projects, 52 projects (43 New Line, 01 Gauge Conversion and 08 Doubling) of 6,560 km length, costing `1 lakh crore approximately have been taken up on cost sharing with different State Governments.
Execution of cost sharing projects are sometimes delayed on account of delay in receipt of Cost sharing amounts from State Governments. Railways is regularly following up with the concerned State Governments for deposition of their outstanding cost share and handing over of land for expeditious completion of these projects. Upon request made by Ministry of Railways, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has agreed for a Payment Security Mechanism (PSM) to ensure State’s contribution towards Railway Infrastructure projects being implemented on cost sharing basis. For this purpose, Railways have requested State Governments for a tripartite agreement between Ministry of Railways, State Governments and RBI under which State Governments would execute Direct Debit mandate which will be registered with RBI. The Direct Debit under this mandate shall be honored by RBI subject to availability of clear and sufficient balance in the account of State Government.
(c): Ramganj Mandi - Bhopal (277 Km) new line project was included in the Budget 2000-01. The anticipated cost of the project is `2910 crore. An expenditure of `1256 crore has been incurred upto March, 2021 and an outlay of `470 crore for Financial Year 2021-22 has been provided for this project. Land acquisition of balance 549 hectares private land, 140 hectares Government land in Madhya Pradesh has been taken up. So far, Ramganj- Mandi-Junakheda (47 Km) section of the project has been commissioned and work has been taken up in the remaining section in available land.
The completion of any Railway project(s) depends on various factors like quick land acquisition by State Government, forest clearance by officials of forest department, deposition of cost share by State Government in cost sharing projects, priority of 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). However, Railways is making all the efforts for expeditious completion of projects.
Since 2014, there has been substantial increase in Budget allocation and commensurate commissioning of projects. The Average Annual Budget allocation in the Indian Railways for New Line, Gauge Conversion and Doubling works during 2014-19 has increased to `26,026 crore per year from `11,527 crore per year during 2009-14, which is 126% more than average annual budget outlay of 2009-14. The Annual budget allocation for these Projects for Financial Year 2019-20 was `39,836 crore (246% more than average annual budget allocation during 2009-14) and `43,626 crore in Financial Year 2020-21 (278% more than the Average Annual Budget allocation during 2009-14). For Financial year 2021-22, highest-ever budget outlay of `52,398 crore {Original budget outlay(BE)- `45,465 crore and additional outlay- `6,933 crore} has been provided for these works, which is 355% more than average annual budget outlay of 2009-14.
During 2014-21, 17,720 km section (3,681 km New Line, 4,871 km Gauge Conversion and 9,168 km Doubling) has been commissioned at an average of 2,531 km/year which is 67% more than the average commissioning during 2009-14(1520 km/year).
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