(a) the total length in kilometres of the railway tracks laid in major States of the country during the last three years;
(b) whether execution thereof has been delayed due to non according approval thereof by the State Governments, if so, the details and reasons therefor;
(c) whether there has been cost escalation of the above projects due to this reason; and
(d) if so, the details thereof and corrective steps taken in this regard?
MINISTER OF RAILWAYS AND COMMERCE & INDUSTRY
(SHRI PIYUSH GOYAL)
(a): During the last 3 years, 8,313 Km of Railway Tracks (New Line, Gauge Conversion and Doubling) have been commissioned in the Country.
(b) to (d): Commissioning of New Railway line involves land acquisition by State Governments, forest clearance by officials of forest department, shifting of infringing utilities (both underground and over ground), statutory clearances from various authorities, encountering unforeseen
conditions like earthquake, flooding, excessive rains, strikes of labor, order of Hon’ble Courts etc. All these factors affect the completion time and cost of the projects.
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 capacity enhancement projects, 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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