GUWAHATI: Indian Railway is executing various railway projects spreading across the length and breadth of the country, including the North-East region, stated a press release.
As on April 1, 2021, 484 Railway projects of 51,165 Km length, costing approximately Rs 7.53 lakh crore were in different stages of planning/sanction/execution, out of which 10,638 km length has been commissioned and an expenditure of approximately Rs 2.14 lakh crore had been incurred up to March, 2021. These include:-
(i) 187 new line projects of 21,037 km length, costing Rs 4,05,916 crore, out of which commissioning of 2,621 km length has been achieved and expenditure of Rs 1,05,591 crore had been incurred up to March, 2021. (ii) 46 Gauge Conversion projects of 6,213 km length, costing Rs 53,171 crore, out of which commissioning of 3,587 Km length has been achieved and expenditure of Rs 22,184 crore incurred up to March, 2021.
(iii) 251 Doubling projects of 23,915 km length, costing Rs 2,93,471 crore, out of which commissioning of 4,430 km length has been achieved and expenditure of Rs 86,041 crore incurred up to March, 2021.
It may be mentioned that the Gross Budget Allocation for the FY 2022-23 for Northeast Frontier (NF) Railway is Rs 11,428.86 crore, which includes Rs 7,121 crore for construction of New Lines and Doubling works. The Budget has put adequate emphasis on speedy implementation of new lines and doubling works and other developmental works, which are going on in this zone. Budget allotment for the Northeastern States is 44% more than the previous year's allotment (Rs 6,913 crore) and 370% more than the average of 2009-14 allotment.
The completion of any Railway project depends on various factors like quick land acquisition by State Government, forest clearance by officials of forest department, deposition of cost share by State Government in cost sharing projects, priority of projects, shifting of infringing utilities, 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 conditions etc., and all these factors affect the completion time and cost of the project, which is finally worked out at the completion stage. However, Railways is making all the efforts for expeditious completion of projects.
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