(a) whether the Railways as been hit by severe cash crunch to take up new projects and also to complete ongoing projects in each zone;
(b) if so, the details thereof and reasons therefor; and
(c) the corrective steps being taken by the Government in this regard?
MINISTER OF RAILWAYS AND COMMERCE & INDUSTRY
(SHRI PIYUSH GOYAL)
(a) to (c): Presently, Indian Railways have taken up 498 Railway projects of length 49,069 km, costing `6.75 lakh crore, which are in different stages of execution/planning/sanction, out of which, commissioning of 8,979 km has been achieved and expenditure of `1.54 lakh crore incurred up to March, 2019.
Above projects include:-
188 New Line Projects of length 21,295 km, costing `3.87 lakh crore, out of which, commissioning of 2,622 km has been achieved and expenditure of `85,536 crore incurred up to March, 2019.
55 Gauge Conversion Projects of length 7,275 km, costing `56,135 crore, out of which, commissioning of 3,573 km has been achieved and expenditure of `19,640 crore incurred up to March, 2019.
255 Doubling Projects of length 20,500 km, costing `2.32 lakh crore, out of which, commissioning of 2,784 km has been achieved and expenditure of `48,342 crore incurred up to March, 2019.
The average annual expenditure in New line/Gauge Conversion/Doubling Projects in 2009-14 was `11527 crore, which increased to `26,022 crore, during 2014-19, which is 126% more of average of 2009-2014.
Further, allocation of Budget for 2019-2020 is `30,198 crore, which is, 162% more with respect to average annual budget outlay of 2009-14.
The details of allotment of funds and expenditure project-wise are made available in public domain on Indian Railways website i.e. www.indianrailways.gov.in >Ministry of Railways >Railway Board >About Indian Railways >Railway Board Directorates >Finance (Budget).
Based on operational requirement, thorough review of throughput enhancement projects has been carried out and with focussed approach, the projects have been prioritized into Super Critical Projects (58 nos), Critical Projects (68 nos.) and other throughput enhancement projects (130 nos.).
Presently, the balance length of Super Critical Projects is 2347 Km, 5676 Km of Critical Projects and 9703 Km for other Doubling Projects. The throw-forward for these projects is of the order of `1.84 lakh crores and all out sincere and focussed approach is being adopted by Railway for quick execution and early return to Railways.
For capacity enhancement projects 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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