MINISTER OF RAILWAYS, COMMUNICATIONS AND
ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
(SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW)
(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 UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 5640 BY SHRI DAYANIDHI MARAN TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 06.04.2022 REGARDING DEVELOPMENT OF RAILWAY INFRASTRUCTURE IN TAMIL NADU
(a), (b), (d) and (e): Railway projects are sanctioned Zonal Railway-wise and not State-wise as the Railway’s projects may span across State boundaries. However, as on 01.04.2021, 25 projects (09 new line, 4 Gauge conversion and 12 doubling) of total length 3,077 Km, costing `28,307 crore falling fully/partly in the State of Tamil Nadu are under different stages of planning/approval/execution. These include:-
• 9 New Line Projects of total length 871 km at a cost of `7,910 crore, out of which an expenditure of `575 crore has been incurred upto March 2021.
• 4 Gauge Conversion Project of total length 839 km at a cost of `5,838 crore, out of which 604 Km length has been commissioned and an expenditure of `2,972 crore has been incurred upto March 2021.
• 12 Doubling Projects of total length 1,367 km at a cost of `14,559 crore, out of which 246 Km length has been commissioned and an expenditure of `3,299 crore has been incurred upto March 2021.
Railway projects in Tamil Nadu are covered by Southern Railway (SR), South Central Railway (SCR) and South Western Railway (SWR) zone of Indian Railway. The zone-wise, project-wise details of projects including cost, expenditure and outlay 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)> Rail Budget/Pink Book (Year)> Railway wise Works Machinery and Rolling Stock Programme.
Since 2014, there has been substantial increase in budget outlay for infrastructure projects and safety works and commensurate commissioning. Average annual Budget allocation for Infrastructure and Safety works, falling fully/ partly in State of Tamil Nadu, during 2014-19 has been enhanced to `1,979 crore per year from `879 crore per year during 2009-14, which is 125% more than average annual budget outlay of 2009-14. Budget allocation for these project for financial year 2019-20 has been `2,410 crore (174% more than average annual allocation of 2009-14) and `2,812 crore for financial year 2020-21 (220% more than average annual budget allocation of 2009-14). For financial year 2021-22, highest ever budget outlay of `3,730 crore has been provided for these works, which is 324% more than average annual budget outlay of 2009-14.
During 2014-21, 996 km sections (404 Km of Gauge Conversion and 592 Km of Doubling) falling fully/partly in the State of Tamil Nadu have been commissioned at an average rate 142.29 Km per year.
The completion of any Railway project(s) depends on various factors like quick land acquisition by State Government, forest clearance by officials of forest department, deposition of cost share by cost sharing authority in cost sharing project(s), shifting of infringing utilities, statutory clearances from various authorities, court cases, geological and topographical conditions of area, law and order situation in the area of project(s) site, number of working months in a year for particular project site due to climatic conditions etc. All these factors affect the completion time of the project(s). As such, confirmed completion time of project(s) cannot be ascertained at this stage. Nevertheless, every effort is being made to execute the project(s) expeditiously.
(c): Maintenance/improvement of Railway Stations is an ongoing and continuous process and works in this regard are undertaken as per requirement and subject to inter-se priority and availability of funds.
The State of Tamil Nadu is covered under Southern Railway, South Central Railway and South Western Railway. Following steps are being taken to ensure better safety of track.
Modern track structure consisting of 60 Kg, 90 Ultimate Tensile Strength (UTS) rails, Prestressed Concrete Sleeper (PSC) Normal/Wide base sleepers with elastic fastening, fanshaped layout turnout on PSC sleepers, Steel Channel/H-beam Sleepers on girder bridges is used, while carrying out primary track renewals.
Long rail panels of 260 M/130M length are being manufactured at the steel plant to minimize number of Alumino Thermit joints in the track.
Patrolling of railway tracks is done to look out for weld/rail fractures for ensuring safety.
Ultrasonic Flaw Detection (USFD) testing of rails to detect flaws and timely removal of defective rails.
Mechanization of track maintenance is being carried out to reduce human errors.
Track management system has been introduced on Indian Railways for development of database and decision support system and to decide rationalize maintenance requirement and optimize inputs.
Inspections at regular intervals are carried out to monitor and educate staff for observance of safe practices.
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