PIB News Update: Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry, Shri Piyush Goyal has informed that Presently, Indian Railways have taken up 498 Railway projects of 49,069 km length, costing Rs. 6.75 lakh crore, which are in different stages of planning/sanction/execution, out of which, commissioning of 8,979 km length has been achieved and expenditure of Rs. 1.53 lakh crore has been incurred upto March, 2019.
Based on operational requirement, thorough review of throughput enhancement projects has been carried out and with focused approach, the projects have been prioritized into Super Critical Projects (58 nos), Critical Projects (68 nos.) and other throughput enhancement projects (130 nos.).
Presently, the balance length of Super Critical Projects is 2347 Km, 5676 Km of Critical Projects and 9703 Km for other Doubling Projects. All out sincere and focused approach is being adopted by Railway for quick execution and early return to Railways.
The details of Railway projects including allotment of fund and expenditure, project-wise 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).
Average Budget expenditure in New Line, Doubling and Gauge Conversion Projects during 2014-19 has increased to Rs. 26,026 crore per year during 2014-19 from Rs. 11,527 crore per year during 2009-14. The average budget expenditure during 2014-19 is 126% more as compared to average expenditure during 2009-14.
The completion of any Railway project depends on various factors like quick land acquisition by State Government, forest clearance by officials of forest department, shifting of infringing utilities (both underground and over ground), 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, encountering unforeseen conditions like earthquake, flooding, excessive rains, strikes of labour, orders of Hon’ble Courts, situation and conditions of working agencies/contractors etc. and all these factors vary from project to project and site to site. Hence, no confirmed time frame can be fixed for completion of projects.
In the overall interest of the nation and to ensure that projects are completed in time without cost overrun, lot of monitoring is done in Railways at various levels (field level, divisional level, zonal level and Board level) and regular meetings are held with the officials of State Government and concerned authorities to resolve the pending issues that are obstructing the progress of projects.
To ensure that projects are completed even before time, Railway has adopted the concept of incentives to the contractor in the form of bonus clause in contracts which will further enhance the pace of execution of projects.
For capacity enhancement projects, institutional financing has been arranged, which has increased Railways’ capacity for committed fund provision for capacity enhancement projects.
During Financial Year 2020-21, Rs. 35,965 crore has been proposed as budget outlay for New Line Gauge Conversion and Doubling projects from Gross Budgetary Support and Institutional Financing from Extra Budgetary Resources.
Railways’ outlay for Capital Expenditure in Budget Estimates 2020-21 has been approved for Rs. 1,60,142 crore with Gross Budgetary Support (including Nirbhaya fund) of Rs. 70,250 crore and Internal and Extra Budgetary Resources of Rs. 90,792 crore.
The outlay has been distributed among projects of various Minor Heads (Planheads) like New Lines, Gauge Conversion, Doubling, Electrification, Workshops, Passenger Amenities, Metropolitan Transport Projects and other safety related works under Planheads like Level Crossings, Road Over/Under Bridges, Track Renewals, Bridge Works, Signalling and Telecom Works etc.