Parliament Question: Expansion of Railway Lines in Himachal Pradesh

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2041 TO BE ANSWERED ON 11.02.2026 EXPANSION OF RAILWAY LINES IN HIMACHAL PRADESH †2041. DR. RAJEEV BHARADWAJ: Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state: (a) the details of the funds allocated by the Government to Himachal Pradesh for expansion of railways in the Budget 2025-26; and (b) the time line by when the proposed work on Amb-Andaura-Baijnath- Papraula and Palampur-Shimla stations in Himachal Pradesh is likely to be started under Amrit Bharat Station? ANSWER MINISTER OF RAILWAYS, INFORMATION & BROADCASTING AND ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW) (a) & (b): The Railway projects are surveyed/ sanctioned/executed Zonal Railway wise and not State-wise/District-wise as the Railways’ projects may span across state boundaries. Budget allocation for Infrastructure projects and safety works, falling fully/ partly in the state of Himachal Pradesh is as under: Period Outlay 2009-14 ₹108 crore/year 2025-26 ₹ 2716 Cr. (More than 25 times) As on 01.04.2025, 03 New line of total length 214 km, costing Rs.17,622 crore, falling fully/partly in the state of Himachal Pradesh are sanctioned, §out of which, 64 km length has been commissioned and an expenditure of Rs. 8280 crore has been incurred upto March, 2025. To improve connectivity in Himachal Pradesh, Nangal Dam - Una - Andaura - Daulatpur Chowk (60 km) section of Nangal Dam - Talwara - Mukerian new line project has been commissioned. Work of Daulatpur Chowk - Kartoli Punjab - Talwara (52 km) section has been taken up. Further, work of Chandigarh-Baddi New Line (28 Km) have also been taken up at a cost of Rs. 1540 crore. Bhanupalli-Bilaspur-Beri (63km) New Rail Line project has been sanctioned on cost sharing basis having 25% share of State Government of Himachal Pradesh and 75 % share of Central Government. Further, full cost of land beyond Rs. 70 crore is to be borne by Government of Himachal Pradesh. Detailed Estimate of the project was sanctioned at a cost of Rs.6753 crore including land cost of Rs. 1617 crore. In Himachal Pradesh, 124 Ha of land is required for the execution of the project. Against this requirement, only 82 Ha have been provided by State Government of Himachal Pradesh. Work has been taken up on the available land. Land beyond Bilaspur to Beri is yet to be handed over by Government of Himachal Pradesh. Non-availability of land is adversely affecting the project. The total expenditure incurred on the project is Rs.7,729 crore. As per cost sharing arrangements Rs. 2,781 crore was to be given by Government of Himachal Pradesh. However, they have deposited only Rs. 847 crore as their share of cost. Thus, Rs.1,934 crore is balance with State Government of Himachal Pradesh. Non deposition of their share of cost is adversely affecting the progress of project.The progress of this project is affected due to non fulfillment of their commitments by State Govt. The Government of India is geared up to execute projects, however success depends upon the support of Government of Himachal Pradesh. Moreover, to improve rail connectivity in Himachal Pradesh, Survey for Baddi-Ghanauli new line (25 Km) has been completed and Detailed Project Report (DPR) has been prepared. After preparation of DPR, sanctioning of project requires consultation with various stake-holders including State Governments and necessary approvals viz. appraisal of NITI Aayog, Ministry of Finance etc. As sanctioning of projects is a continuous and dynamic process, exact timelines cannot be fixed. Sanction of any railway project depend upon many parameters/factors which include the following:  Anticipated traffic projections and Remunerativeness of the proposed route  First and last mile connectivity provided by the project  Connection of missing links and providing additional route  Augmentation of congested/saturated lines  Demands raised by State Governments/Central Ministries/Public representatives,  Railway’s own operational requirements  Socio-economic considerations  Overall availability of fundsCompletion of Railway project/s depends on various factors which include the following:  Land acquisition by State Government  Forest clearance  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 etc. All these factors affect the completion time and cost of the project/s. Station Redevelopment:- Ministry of Railways has launched Amrit Bharat Station Scheme for redevelopment of stations with a long-term approach. The scheme involves preparation of master plans and their implementation in phases to improve the stations. The master planning includes:  Improvement of access to station and circulating areas  Integration of station with both sides of city  Improvement of station building  Improvement of waiting halls, toilets, sitting arrangement, water booths  Provision of wider foot over bridge/air concourse commensurate with passenger traffic  Provision of lift/escalators/ramp  Improvement /Provision of platform surface and cover over platforms  Provision of kiosks for local products through schemes like ‘One Station One Product’  Parking areas, Multimodal integration  Amenities for Divyangjans Better passenger information systems  Provision of executive lounges, nominated spaces for business meetings, landscaping, etc. keeping in view the necessity at each station. The scheme also envisages sustainable and environment friendly solutions, provision of ballastless tracks etc. as per necessity, phasing and feasibility and creation of city centre at the station in the long term. So far, 1337 stations have been identified for development under Amrit Bharat Station Scheme, out of which 04 stations including Amb Andaura,Baijnath Paprola,Palampur Himachal and Shimla stations, are located in the Himachal Pradesh. Development works have been completed at Amb Andaura and Baijnath Paprola stations. Palampur Himachal and Shimla stations are under master planning. Master Planning is an iterative process requiring optimization and the time frame and other details for such optimization cannot be indicated at this stage. Development / Redevelopment / Upgradation / Modernisation of stations on Indian Railways is a continuous and ongoing process and works in this regard are undertaken as per requirement, subject to inter-se priority and availability of funds. Development / redevelopment / upgradation / modernisation of a station is carried out based on category of station/condition/traffic handled etc. Further, development / upgradation of railway stations is complex in nature involving safety of passengers & trains and requires various statutory clearances such as fire clearance, heritage, tree cutting, airport clearanceetc. The progress also gets affected due to brownfield related challenges such as shifting of utilities (involving water/sewage lines, optical fibre cables, gas pipe lines, power/signal cables, etc.), infringements, operation of trains without hindering passenger movement, speed restrictions due to works carriedout in close proximity of tracks and high voltage power lines, etc. and these factors affect the completion time.Therefore, no time frame can be indicated at this stage. Development / Upgradation / Modernisation of stations including under Amrit Bharat Station Scheme is generally funded under Plan Head-53 ‘Customer Amenities’. The details of allocation and expenditure under Plan Head-53 are maintained Zonal Railway-wise and not work-wise, or station- wise or state-wise. Himachal Pradesh is covered under the jurisdiction of Northern Railway. For this zone, an allocation of ₹ 1,483 crore has been made for the financial year 2025-26, out of which an expenditure of ₹ 1,308 crore (up to December, 2025) has been incurred so far. *****