(a) whether the Railways propose doubling and electrification of Bhatni-Varanasi, Chhapra-Balia and Varanasi-Allahabad sections;
(b) if so, the details and the present status thereof;
(c) the steps taken/ being taken by the Railways to complete these projects in a time- bound manner; and
(d) the alternative arrangements made/being made to run the trains on Bhatni-Varanasi section in view of increasing number of passengers?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS (SHRI MANOJ SINHA)
(a) to (d): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (d) OF UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3180 BY SHRI HARINARAYAN RAJBHAR AND SHRI RAVINDER KUSHWAHA TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 31.07.2014 REGARDING DOUBLING AND ELECTRIFICATION.
(a) & (b): On Bhatni- Varanasi section, doubling of Mau- Indara portion (8.30 km) has been completed and Aurnihar- Manduadih portion (38 km) has been taken up. There is no proposal for doubling of remaining sections.
Doubling of Chhapra-Ballia section (65 km.) has also been sanctioned for which preliminary activities like preparation of plan, estimate, etc. have been taken up.
Varanasi is connected with Allahabad by the following two alternative routes:
(i) Varanasi- Allahabad via Jhanghai, Phaphamau, Prayag: On this route, doubling of Lohta-Bhadoi (39 km), Bhadoi-Janghai (31 km) and Phaphamau-Allahabad (12.9 km) sections have been taken up. Doubling of Phaphamau- Janghai section (49 km.) has not been sanctioned.
(ii) Varanasi- Allahabad via Manduadih, Jangi Ganj, Saidabad (80 km): Survey for doubling of this section has been taken up.
As regards electrification of these sections, electrification of Chhapra-Balia-Ghazipur- Aunrihar-Varanasi-Manduadih-Allahabad (330 route km) has been included in Rail Budget 2014-15 at an anticipated cost of ` 299.52 crore. At present, there is no proposal to electrify Aunrihar-Mau-Bhatni section.
(c): Railways have a huge throwforward of ongoing projects and limited overall availability of funds. As a result, it is not possible to provide adequate funds to all the projects on regular basis. Therefore, time frame for all the projects cannot be fixed.
(d): The existing train services on the Varanasi- Bhatni section is considered adequate for the present level of traffic offering.