(a) the length of the new railway lines laid in the country during the last 3 years and the current year, State/UT-wise;
(b) whether the modernisation and extension of railway lines in the country has been slow as compared to other countries such as China;
(c) if so, the details and the reasons therefor; and
(d) the measures taken/being taken by the Government in this regard?
MINISTER OF RAILWAYS AND COMMERCE & INDUSTRY
(SHRI PIYUSH GOYAL)
(a) to (d): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.
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STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (d) OF UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2825 BY DR. UMESH G. JADHAV TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 10.07.2019 REGARDING NEW RAILWAY LINES
(a): The projects are not sanctioned State-wise, area-wise and region-wise. Since new lines generally straddle over more than one State, details of ongoing projects are maintained Zone-wise. The length of New Lines laid in the last three years and current year is 1842 Kilometres.
(b) to (d): Modernization on the Railways is an ongoing process. To meet the demands of modern Railway network, Railway is laying modern track structure consisting of 60 kg, 90 Ultimate Tensile Strength (UTS) rails on Pre-stressed Reinforced Concrete (PSC) sleepers with 1660 sleepers per km at the time of renewals, laying longer rails, minimizing the use of Alumino Thermic Welding, adopting better welding technology for rails i.e. Flash Butt Welding, maintaining track with the help of track machines, conducting Ultrasonic testing of rails to detect flaws, etc.
Further, 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. and all these factors affect the completion cost of the project, which is finally worked out at the completion stage.
In the overall interest of the nation and to ensure that projects are completed in time without cost overrun, lot of monitoring is done in Railways at various levels (field level, divisional level, zonal level and Board level) and regular meetings are held with the officials of State Government and concerned authorities to resolve the pending issues that are obstructing the progress of projects.
To ensure that projects are completed even before time, Railway has adopted the concept of incentives to the contractor in the form of bonus clause in contracts which will further enhance the pace of execution of projects.
For important projects, capacity enhancement projects, last mile connectivity etc. institutional financing has been done by arranging loan of `1.5 lakh crore, which has increased Railways’ capacity for committed fund provision for essential projects.
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