On a mission mode to become ‘Future Ready’, Indian Railways is on it’s way to deliver 58 super critical and 68 critical projects worth more than Rs 115,000 crore in next few years. In a statement, Railways said that despite challenges brought in by the Covid-19 pandemic, it is going on rapidly to complete the projects which are vital for increasing the capacity of tracks.
29 Super Critical Projects of total length 1,044 Km costing Rs 11,588 Cr were commissioned in last 1 year. Indian Railways have identified 58 Super Critical Projects of a total length of 3,750 km costing Rs 39,663 Crore. Out of these 58 Super Critical Projects, 27 projects will be completed by December 2021 while 2 projects will be handed over by March 2022.
It may be noted that most of the traffic of Indian Railways moves on Golden Quadrilateral, High Density Network routes and Highly Utilized Network routes. The high density and highly utilized network routes constitute 51% route length of the Indian Railways network but carries 96% of traffic.
“Based on traffic density, type of commodity moved, importance of route from strategic considerations etc. the projects requiring urgent expansion including those which are already progressing well (expenditure already more than 60%) have been categorized as Super Critical projects (58 nos) and the projects requiring completion in next stage have been defined as Critical projects (68 nos). All are civil projects (Includes all related electrification and signalling works also),” the release said.
Railways further said that by focussed funding and continuous monitoring, these projects are targeted for early completion to reap the benefits of investment. “On completion these projects will improve mobility, safety and create additional capacity for running more passenger and freight trains on these saturated and busy routes. Higher priority has been given in allocation of budget for these identified projects for early completion.”
SUPER CRITICAL PROJECTS:
58 super critical projects of a total length of 3,750 km costing Rs 39,663 Cr have been identified. These supercritical projects are projects of multi-tracking i.e. doubling/3rd line/4th line on busy routes. With completion of these projects, Railways will be able to move more traffic at faster speed with safety on these dense/saturated/busy traffic routes.
Till now, 29 projects of total length 1,044 Km costing Rs 11,588 Cr have been commissioned. 27 projects will be completed by December 2021 and balance 02 projects by March 2022.
CRITICAL PROJECTS:
68 critical projects of total length 6,913 km costing Rs 75,736 Cr have been identified and out of these 4 projects of 108-Km length costing Rs 1,408 Cr have been completed till date. It plans to complete balance projects by March 2024.
68 critical projects, anticipated cost Rs 75,736 Cr (around 76,000 Cr), out of which 37,734 (around Rs 38,000 Cr) has been spent till March 21. Outlay for this year is Rs 14,466 Cr (around 15,000 Cr). 4 projects have been completed till now.
Indian Railways has also commissioned 1,614 Km doubling/ 3rd/ 4th line during FY 2020-21 despite COVID-19. During FY 2021-22, it has till date commissioned 133 km doubling/ 3rd line.
Railways also delivered some key capacity building projects in Assam, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Uttarakhand. A few of them are as follows:
ASSAM: Commissioning of second line track on Naranarayan Setu on Brahmaputra river of New Bongaigaon-Guwahati section.
WEST BENGAL: In May 2021, Indian Railways has commissioned part of two doubling projects i.e. Katwa- Bazar Sau and Azimganj-Bazar Sau in West Bengal despite COVID-19 and state election.
Katwa- Bazar Sau and Azimganj-Bazar Sau: Both the doubling of this line is important in view of traffic moving from Barddhaman to/ from Sahibganj for movement of coal for NTPCs TPS i.e. Farakka Super Thermal Power Station and Katwa Super Thermal Power Station (Under construction).
MAHARASHTRA: In June ’21, Indian Railways has commissioned a Super Critical project Bhusaval-Jalgaon 3rd line in Maharashtra, which will remove bottleneck of this section and provided much much relief for operation of train service in Manmad-Khandwa and Bhusaval-Udhna section.
UTTARAKHAND: Haridwar-Laksar Doubling: After commissioning (in January ’21) of this section entire route from New Delhi to Haridwar via Meerut, Muzaffarnagar and Roorkee has become double line. It will improve punctuality on this busy route.
After completion of the above supercritical and critical projects, more line capacity will be available for smooth movement of passenger and freight traffic on congested routes, increase speed of trains, introduction of new train service, increased safety as maintenance margins on these busy routes will become available, the statement added.
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