Executive Summary:
This document details the status of railway connectivity projects in the North Eastern Region (NER) and on the North Eastern Railway (NER). As of March 2025, significant investments have been made to augment rail infrastructure through new lines and doubling projects. A large outlay has been spent and there are ongoing projects and surveys to further enhance connectivity.
Key Points / Main Content:
North Eastern Region (NER) Railway Projects:
* Sanctioned Projects: 12 projects (8 New Lines, 4 Doubling) with a total length of 777 Km and a cost of ₹69,342 crore.
* Commissioning: 278 Km of lines commissioned up to March 2025.
* Expenditure: ₹41,676 crore spent up to March 2025.
* Budget Allocation: Average budget allocation increased from ₹2,122 crore/year (2009-14) to ₹10,440 crore (2025-26).
* Commissioning Rate: Increased from 66.6 Km/year (2009-14) to 167.27 Km/year (2014-25).
* Recent Projects: Includes Bogibeel Bridge (92 Km), Agartala-Sabroom New Line (112 Km), and Rangiya-Murkongselek Gauge Conversion (510 Km).
* Ongoing Projects: Includes Jiribam-Imphal New Line (111 Km), Dimapur-Kohima New Line (82 Km), and New Bongaigaon-Goalpara-Guwahati-Kamakhaya Doubling (176 Km).
* Surveys: 17 surveys (13 New Line, 4 Doubling) of total length 1790 Km sanctioned during the last three years (FY 2022-23 to 2024-25 and current FY) under PM Gati Shakti NMP.
North Eastern Railway (NER) Railway Projects:
* Sanctioned Projects: 17 infrastructure projects (8 New Line, 1 Gauge Conversion, 8 Doubling) with a total length of 1,253 km and a cost of ₹20,466 crore.
* Commissioning: 354 km of lines commissioned up to March 2025.
* Expenditure: ₹10,486 crore spent up to March 2025.
* Recent Projects: Includes Ghazipur City-Tarighat New Line (17 Km), Indara-Dohrighat Gauge Conversion (34 Km), and Lucknow-Pilibhit Gauge Conversion (263 Km).
* Ongoing Projects: Includes Anandnagar-Ghughuli via Maharajganj New Line (53 Km) and Gorakhpur Cantt-Valmiki Nagar Doubling (96 Km).
* Surveys: 46 surveys (5 New Line, 2 Gauge Conversion, 39 Doubling) of total length of 1878 Km sanctioned during last three years (2022-23 to 2024-25 and current financial year).
Project Completion Factors:
* Completion depends on land acquisition, forest clearance, utility shifting, statutory clearances, geological conditions, law and order, and working months.
Impact Analysis:
State Governments:
* Impact: Required for quick land acquisition and assistance with statutory clearances.
* Action Required: Facilitate land acquisition and provide necessary clearances for smooth project execution.
Forest Department:
* Impact: Responsible for forest clearance.
* Action Required: Expedite forest clearance processes for project sites.
Project Authorities:
* Impact: Responsible for project execution.
* Action Required: Manage project execution considering various factors affecting timelines and costs.
Ministry of Finance/NITI Aayog:
* Impact: Required to provide necessary approvals
* Action Required: Provide timely project appraisal
Key Entities Referenced
North Eastern Railway: A zone of the Indian Railways, and a key focus of railway infrastructure projects mentioned in the document.
North Eastern Region: A region of India comprising several states, where railway projects are being developed. Projects falling fully or partly in this region are discussed.
Ministry of Railways: The Indian government ministry responsible for railway infrastructure and operations. The minister is answering the parliamentary question.
SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW: The Minister of Railways, Information Broadcasting and Electronics Information Technology, answering the Lok Sabha question.
Lok Sabha: The lower house of the Parliament of India, where the question about railway projects was raised.
PM Gati Shakti NMP: A national master plan for multi-modal connectivity, under which railway surveys in the North East Region have been sanctioned.
Bogibeel Bridge: A major rail-cum-road bridge project in Assam, commissioned in the North East Region.
NITI Aayog: National Institution for Transforming India, a policy think tank of the Government of India. Its appraisal is required for project sanctioning.
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
LOK SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2799
TO BE ANSWERED ON 06.08.2025
NORTH EASTERN RAILWAY CONNECTIVITY PROJECT
†2799. SHRI DINESHBHAI MAKWANA:
SHRI DILIP SAIKIA:
Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:-
(a) the details of the status of North Eastern Railway connectivity
project at present; and
(b) the details of the amount invested in said railway project along
with the total length of railway lines made operational till 2024?
ANSWER
MINISTER OF RAILWAYS, INFORMATION & BROADCASTING AND
ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
(SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW)
(a) and (b): Railway projects are sanctioned on the basis of
remunerativeness, traffic projections, last mile connectivity, missing
links and alternate routes, augmentation of congested/saturated lines,
demands raised by State Governments, Central Ministries, Members of
Parliament, other public representatives, Railway’s own operational
requirement, socio-economic considerations etc. depending upon
throwforward of ongoing projects and overall availability of funds.
Zonal Railway-wise details of Railway projects are made available in
public domain on Indian Railway’s website.
..P/2-:2:-
To augment and increase line capacity of rail network situated in North
East Region, 12 Railway projects (08 New Lines, 04 Doubling), of total
length of 777 Km, costing ₹69,342 crore falling fully/partly in North
Eastern Region (NER) have been sanctioned, out of which 278 Km
length has been commissioned and an expenditure of ₹41,676 crore has
been incurred upto March, 2025.
The status of work is summarized as under:-
Total Length Expenditure
No. of
Category Length Commissioned upto March,
projects
(in Km) (in Km) 2024 (₹ in Cr.)
New Lines 08 448 113 38,078
Doubling 04 329 165 3,698
Total 12 777 278 41,676
Average Budget allocation for Infrastructure projects and other works,
falling fully/ partly in North Eastern Region (NER) is as under:-
Period Outlay
2009-14 ₹2,122 crore/year
2025-26 ₹10,440 crore ( about 5 times)
Commissioning of sections (New Line, Gauge Conversion and Doubling)
falling fully/partly in North Eastern Region (NER) during 2009-14 and
2014-2025 is as under:-
Average commissioning of new
Period New track Commissioned
tracks
2009-14 333 Km 66.6 Km/year
2014-25 1,840 Km 167.27 Km/year (about 3 times)
..P/3-:3:-
Projects commissioned falling fully/partly in North East Region since
2014, are as under:
Cost
SN Project
(₹ in crore)
1 Bogibeel Bridge (92 Km.) 5820
2 Agartala-Sabroom (112 Km.) New Line 3170
3 Agartala-Akaura (5 Km) New Line 865
Rangiya-Murkongselek (510 Km) Gauge
4 3019
Conversion
Kumarghat-Agartala (109 Km) Gauge
5 1242
Conversion
6 Katakhal–Bharabi (84 Km) Gauge Conversion 348
Lumding-Badarpur- Silchar & Badarpur-
7 673
Kumarghat (412 Km) Gauge Conversion
8 Lumding-Hojai (45 Km) Doubling 410
9 Digaru-Hojai (102 Km) Doubling 1873
10 New Bongaigaon-Agthori (143 Km.) Doubling 2048
Some of the main projects falling fully/partly in the North East Region
which have been taken up are as under:-
Cost
SN Name of the project
(₹ In crore)
1 Jiribam-Imphal (111 Km) New Line 18562
2 Dimapur-Kohima (82 Km) New Line 6911
3 Bhairabi-Sairang (51 Km) New Line 5521
4 Murkongselek-Pasighat (27 Km) New Line 980
5 New Bongaigaon-Goalpara-Guwahati 2950
(Kamakhaya) (176 Km) Doubling
6 Saraighat Bridge (7 Km) Doubling 1478
7 Aluabari-Thakurganj (20 km) Doublng 327
8 Aluabari-New Jalpaiguri (57 km)3rd & 4th Line 1786
..P/4-:4:-
Further, during the last three years i.e. FY 2022-23, 2023-24, 2024-25
and the current FY, 17 surveys (13 New Line, and 4 Doubling) of total
length 1790 Km. falling fully/ partly in the North East Region have been
sanctioned under PM Gati Shakti NMP. Some important surveys are as
below:
SN Name of Project Length in Kilometer
1 Zubza-Imphal New Line 150
Lanka - Silchar via Chandranathpur New
2 208
Line
3 Sairang-Hbichhuah (Mizoram) New Line 223
4 Agthori-Dekargaon New Line 130
5 Tejpur-Silghat New Line 40
6 Chandranathpur-Agartala Doubling 244
7 Guwahati-Lumding 3rd line 181
8 New Jalpaiguri-Kamakhya 3rd & 4th Line 421
9 Katihar- Aluabari 3rd & 4th Line 145
After firming up 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.
Similarly, to augment and increase line capacity of rail network
situated in North Eastern Railway, as on 01.04.2025, total 17 Railway
infrastructure projects (08 New Line, 01 Gauge Conversion and 08
Doubling), of total length of 1,253 km, costing `20,466 crore on North
Eastern Railway are sanctioned, out of which 354 km length has been
commissioned and an expenditure of `10,486 crore has been incurred
upto March 2025. The summary is as under:
..P/5-:5:-
No. of Total Length Total expenditure
Category sanctioned length commissioned upto March 2025
projects (Km) till Mar'25 (Km) (Cr.)
New Line 8 656 48 4042
Gauge
1 56 0 260
Conversion
Doubling
8 541 306 6184
/Multitracking
Total 17 1253 354 10486
Details of some of the recently completed projects on North Eastern
Railway are as under:
Latest Cost
SN Name of Project
(Cr.)
1 Ghazipur city-Tarighat new line (17 Km) 1766
2 Indara-Dohrighat gauge conversion (34 Km) 213
3 Lucknow-Pilibhit gauge conversion (263 Km) 1634
4 Ballia-Gazipur city doubling (65 Km) 650
5 Aunrihar-Jaunpur doubling (60 Km) 405
6 Malhaur-Daliganj doubling (13 Km) 183
7 Rosa-Sitapur Cantt-Burhwal doubling (181 Km) 2094
Varanasi-Madhosingh-Allahabad doubling (120
8 2018
Km)
9 Aishbagh-Manaknagar doubling (4 Km) 82
Some of the main projects on North Eastern Railway, which have been
taken up, are as under:
SN Project Cost (Cr.)
1 Anandnagar - Ghughuli via Maharajganj new line 958
(53 Km)
2 Etah – Kasganj new line (29 Km) 389
3 Gorakhpur Cantt – Valmiki Nagar Doubling (96 Km) 1121
4 Barabanki-Burhwal 3rd line (27 Km) 426
5 Mankapur-Tikri doubling (28 Km) 280
..P/6-:6:-
Total 46 surveys (5 New Line, 2 Gauge Conversion and 39 Doubling), of
total length of 1878 Km on North Eastern Railway, have been
sanctioned during last three years (2022-2023, 2023-2024, 2024-2025)
and current financial year.
Completion of Railway project/s depends on various factors like quick
land acquisition by State Government, forest clearance by officials of
forest department, shifting of infringing utilities, statutory clearances
from various authorities, geological and topographical conditions of
area, law and order situation in the area of project/s 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.
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