Speed Post News Network
New Delhi : On a mission mode to become “Future Ready”, Railways is on its way to deliver 58 super critical and 68 critical projects worth more than Rs 1,15,000 crore in next few years. Covid challenges notwithstanding, Indian Railways is going on rapidly to complete the projects which are vital for increasing the capacity of tracks. A total of 29 Super Critical Projects of total length 1,044 km costing Rs 11,588 crore got commissioned in last 1 year.
Indian Railways identified total 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.
It may be mentioned here that most of the traffic of Indian Railways moves on Indian Railway network on Golden Quadrilateral, High Density Network routes & Highly Utilised Network routes. The high density and highly utilised 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 categorised 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), according to a PIB release.
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 3750 km costing Rs 39,663 crore have been identified. These super critical 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 crore 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 crore have been identified and out of these 4 projects of 108 km length costing Rs 1,408 crore have been completed till date and balance projects are targeted to be completed by March 2024.
68 critical projects – anticipated cost Rs 75,736 Cr (around 76,000 Cr) of which around Rs 38000 crore has been spent till March 21, 2021. Outlay for this year is Rs 14,466 crore. Four projects have been completed till now.
Indian Railways has commissioned 1,614 km Doubling/ 3rd/ 4th line during FY 2020-21 despite Covid-19 Pandemic. Despite the Pandemic situation again, Indian Railways has commissioned 133 km doubling/ 3rd line till now, during FY 2021-22. Indian Railways has delivered some key capacity building projects in States like Assam, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Uttarakhand.