MINISTER OF RAILWAYS
(SHRI SURESH PRABHAKAR PRABHU)
(a) to (e): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.
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STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (e) OF STARRED QUESTION NO. 394 BY SHRI RAJESH KUMAR DIWAKER AND SHRI ARVIND SAWANT TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 29.03.2017 REGARDING NEW RAILWAY PROJECTS
(a): Since Railway projects generally straddle over more than one State, these are neither surveyed nor sanctioned State-wise. Survey for new lines, gauge conversion of Meter Gauge lines to Broad Gauge and feasibility study for Railway Electrification is a continuous and ongoing process of Indian Railways and are done based on demands raised by State Governments, Central Ministries, Members of Parliament, other public representatives and Railway’s own requirement. Projects are taken up on the basis of remunerativeness, last mile connectivity, missing links and alternate routes, augmentation of congested/saturated lines, socio-economic considerations etc. depending upon throwforward of ongoing projects, overall availability of funds and competing demands.
Railway has taken up the work of developing National Rail Plan-2030 to expand the railway network duly taking into consideration the representations and requests from various stakeholders such as various Ministries, State Governments, elected representatives, Industries. All such requirements will be taken into account alongside Railways consideration of operational requirements, bottlenecks, strategic requirements and socio-economic considerations. For this purpose a website of National Rail Plan-2030 has been launched. Various stake holders and general public may give their suggestions on the website which will be considered while developing the plan.
During the last three years and the current year i.e. 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16 & 2016-17, surveys for 176 New Lines and 8 Gauge Conversions have been conducted throughout the country including those falling fully/partly in the States of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. List of these projects are placed at Appendix-I
As on 01.04.2016, a total of 166 nos. of new line projects totaling 18592 Km, 39 nos. gauge conversion projects totaling 8470 Km and 99 Railway Electrification projects totaling 23666 Route Km spread across the country including the States of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra have been taken up. Details of the projects are available in Pink Book laid on the Table of the House alongwith Budget papers. List of these projects are placed at Appendix-II.
(b): Out of 166 new line projects, 12 projects are falling fully/partly in the State of Uttar Pradesh and 9 projects are falling fully/partly in the State of Maharashtra. Further, 3 projects falling fully/partly in Maharashtra and 3 projects falling fully/partly in Uttar Pradesh have been proposed in Budget 2017-18 subject to requisite approvals. List of such projects is at Appendix-II & III.
(c): (i) Out of 39 gauge conversion projects, 5 projects are falling fully/partly in the State of Uttar Pradesh and 4 projects are falling fully/partly in the State of Maharashtra. Further, 3 gauge conversion projects have been proposed in Budget 2017-18 in the State of Uttar Pradesh. List of such projects is at Appendix-II & III.
(ii) Out of 99 Railway Electrification projects, 24 projects are falling fully/partly in the State of Uttar Pradesh and 12 projects are falling fully / partly in State of Maharashtra. Further total 11 new Electrification projects falling fully/partly in the State of Uttar Pradesh, and 4 new Railway Electrification projects falling fully/partly in the State of Maharashtra have been proposed for inclusion in Budget 2017-18. List of such projects is at Appendix-II & III.
(d): Target length of various Railway Projects is fixed on annual basis. For 2016-17, a target of 2800 Km for commissioning of new track has been fixed. For Electrification, a target of 2000 Kms has been fixed.
(e): Yes, Madam. The work on two Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC) i.e. Western DFC (Jawaharlal Nehru Port to Dadri-1504 Km) and Eastern DFC (Ludhiana to Dankuni-1856 Km) has already been taken up for implementation.
For expediting the Freight movement following additional freight corridors have been identified (i) East-West Corridor (2328 kms) (Kolkata-Mumbai); (ii) North-South Corridor (2343 km) (Delhi-Chennai); and (iii) East Coast Corridor (1114 km) (Kharagpur-Vijaywada). These will relieve the existing corridors of fast growing freight traffic and make them available for introduction of more passenger trains.
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