Question : Gauge Conversion- New Railway Lines and Doubling of Railway Lines

(a) whether the railways has received any proposals/ representations from various Organisations /Road users as well as from the Government of Gujarat and Maharashtra for gauge conversion, new railway lines and doubling of railway lines, which are essential and obvious for development of ports and industries;

(b) if so, the details thereof and the number of proposals approved, State/ zone-wise; and

(c) the time by which the work is likely to be started along with the probable time frame for each project?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

(SHRI MANOJ SINHA)

(a) to (c): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

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STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (c) OF UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 924 BY SHRI C.R. PATIL, SHRIMATI JAYSHREEBEN PATEL, SHRI DILIP PATEL AND PROF. RAVINDRA VISHWANATH GAIKWAD TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 02.03.2016 REGARDING GAGUE CONVERSION, NEW RAILWAY LINES AND DOUBLING OF RAILWAY LINES.


(a) to (c): Requests for new lines, gauge conversion, doubling, etc. both formal as well as informal, are received by Railways at various levels i.e. Railway Board, Zonal Railways and Divisional Headquarters, etc. As receipt of such requests/suggestions is a continuous and dynamic process, centralized compendium of such requests is not maintained. However, such demands from State Governments, public representatives, etc. form an important basis for sanction of surveys and new projects.

As on 01.04.2015, there are 19 major projects, comprising 2 new line, 8 gauge conversion and 9 doubling projects, falling fully/partly in the State of Gujarat, having a total length of 2815 Km costing ` 16753 crore. An expenditure of ` 3688 crore has been incurred up to March, 2015, with an outlay of ` 3078 crore for the year 2015-16. An outlay of ` 3420 crore has been proposed in the Budget 2016-17.

Similarly, as on 01.04.2015, there are 28 major projects, comprising 7 new line, 4 gauge conversion and 17 doubling projects, falling fully/partly in the State of Maharashtra, having a total length of 4423 Km costing ` 33076 crore. An expenditure of ` 4773 crore has been incurred up to March, 2015, with an outlay of ` 4457 crore for the year 2015-16. An outlay of ` 4197 crore has been proposed in the Budget 2016-17.


Completion of these projects is dependent upon many factors such as land acquisition, statutory clearances like forestry and wild life clearances, shifting of services, cutting of trees, construction of road over bridges and road under bridges by road maintaining agencies, apart from availability of adequate funds. Since many of these factors are beyond the control of Ministry of Railways, timelines for completion of all the projects are not feasible to be fixed.

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