New Delhi : Indian Railways has been working in the pursuit of reducing the unit cost of logistics to minimum. Of late, rail infrastructure projects related with Railway tracks have been given big push and as a result, a trend is clearly visible. Progress of Railway track projects i.e. New Lines, Gauge conversion and multi-tracking (doubling/tripling) has shot up more than double as compared to same period last year.
During this Financial Year till 12th Dec 2022, Railways has completed 2022 track Kilometres (TKM) of New lines, Gauge conversion and multi tracking projects.
During this Financial Year till date, 109 TKM of New Line, 102 TKM of Gauge Conversion and 1811TKM of multi tracking has been completed. However, during last financial year this figure was reached during first week of March 2022.
During 2009-14 average doubling commissioning was 375 km/year. This increased to 1394 km/year during 2014-22. Last year till November 756 km doubling/multi-tracking was achieved which has gone upto 1930km this year .
Indian Railways (IR) achieved a commissioning of 2000 km in the month of March of last year and current FY 2022-23, IR has crossed this target in 2nd week of December. Last year IR has achieved highest commissioning of 2904 Km.
Majors projects commissioned are:
Doubling/ multi tracking: Daund-Gulbarga (225 Km) – Golden Quadrilateral route of Mumbai-Chennai, Vijayawada-Gudivada-Bhimavaram (221 Km) Doubling – AP, Secunderabad-Mahbubnagar doubling (85 Km) – Telangana. Nimach-Chittaurgarh doubling – Rajasthan & MP, Ballia-Ghazipur doubling, Dankuni-Chandanpur 3rd line, Bandel-Bonchi, Bonchi-shaktigarh and Kharagpur-Narayangarh 3rd line – West Bengal, Hajipur-Bachhawara Doubling (72 Km) – Bihar, Kharagpur-Narayangarh 3rd line (20 Km)– West Bengal, Bhaupur-Panki 4th line (11 Km) – Uttar Pradesh, Kuruppanthara – Chingavanam Doubling (27 Km) – Kerala, Jaranghih-Danea doubling – Jharkhand, Sambalpur-Titlagarh Doubling (182 Km)-Odisha
Gauge conversion: Ahmedabad-Himmatnagar-Udaipur gauge conversion – Rajasthan & Gujarat
New line: Bhadrachallam-Sattupalli (56 Km) – Telangana.
Kolkata Metro: The section from Phoolbagan to Sealdah(2.33 km) of Kolkata East West Metro Corridor Project on standard gauge completed and commissioned on 14.07.2022.
Last mile connectivity work of Bedi Port has been completed and commissioned in July 22 with major (75%) equity participation of Gujarat Maritime Board.
It is to be noted that in New Line/ Doubling/ Gauge Conversion, 2904 km was achieved against target of 2400 Km during 2021-22 which was the highest ever commissioning (excluding DFC).
Various steps being taken by the Government for effective and speedy implementation of rail projects include (i) substantial increase in allocation of funds on priority projects (ii) delegation of powers at field level- recently powers for permitting blocks and non-interlocked working delegated from Board to Zonal railwayswhich has helped in commissioning of doubling projects (iii) close monitoring of progress of project at various levels, and (iv) regular follow-up with State Governments and concerned authorities for expeditious land acquisition, forestry and wildlife clearances and for resolving other issues pertaining to projects.
PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan:
- The PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan (NMP) was launched in October’21 by Hon’ble Prime minister to bring in a transformative approach in planning and execution of infrastructural transportation projects. The NMP aims to bring in synergy between the infrastructural sectors such as railways, shipping, roadways, telecommunications, pipelines, etc in order to avoid duplication and wastage of precious national resources with the overall objective of developing Multi-Modal connectivity and reducing cost of logistics in the country. Reduced costs along with the Make India initiative will substantially improve the global competitiveness of Indian manufacturing.
- Indian Railways has immediately imbibed the principles of GatiShakti in its project planning process. Over 342 railway projects have been mapped on the GatiShakti GISplatform developed by BISAG-N.
- A Gati Shakti directorate has been created in the Railway Board, and Gati Shakti units have been created in all 68 Divisions of Indian Railways. The objective of this is to bring complete cohesion between components of project planning and execution. The Gati Shakti institutional mechanism in the railway is a single window interface for all other related ministries and departments of both Central and State governments for project planning, sanctioning and execution.
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