Parliament Question: Status of projects under economic railway corridors

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS RAJYA SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 231 ANSWERED ON 13.03.2026 STATUS OF PROJECTS UNDER ECONOMIC RAILWAY CORRIDORS *231 SMT. KIRAN CHOUDHRY: Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state: (a) the current status of projects under the Energy-Mineral-Cement Corridor, High Traffic Density Route and Port Connectivity initiatives; (b) the progress made in the projects sanctioned so far; and (c) whether the Ministry has assessed freight efficiency gains and proposes accelerated completion, if so, the details thereof? ANSWER MINISTER OF RAILWAYS, INFORMATION & BROADCASTING AND ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW) (a) to (c): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House. ***** §STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (c) OF STARRED QUESTION NO.231 BY SMT. KIRAN CHOUDHRY ANSWERED IN RAJYA SABHA ON 13.03.2026 REGARDING STATUS OF PROJECTS UNDER ECONOMIC RAILWAY CORRIDORS (a) to (c): Capacity enhancement of railway network has been taken up by Indian Railways in a big way during last 11 years. The details of commissioning/laying of new track across Indian Railways is given below:- New track Period Average commissioning of new tracks Commissioned 2009-14 7,599 Km 4.2 Km/day 2014-25 34,428 Km 8.6 Km/day (more than 2 times) During the last 05 years, 308 projects (New Line, Gauge Conversion and Doubling) costing approx. 2,93,000 Crore have been sanctioned on Indian Railways. This will enhance the capacity of railway network to run more number of trains. Some of the major projects sanctioned are as follows: SN Project Name Cost (₹ in Crore) 1 Chopan – Chunar doubling (102 Km) 1,553 2 Guntur – Bibinagar doubling (239 Km) 3,238 3 Mudkhed – Medchal& Mahbubnagar – Dhone doubling (418 Km) 5,655 4 Samakhiali – Gandhidham Quadrupling (53 Km) 1,571 5 Merta City – Ras & Bypass at Merta Road new line (56 Km) 1,038 6 Lumding – Furkating doubling (140 Km) 2,334 7 Ajmer – Chanderiya doubling (178 Km) 1,813 8 Motumari – Vishnupuram with RoR doubling (100 Km) 1,746 9 Bikramshila – Katareah new line with new bridge on river ganga (26 Km) 2,549 10 Gunupur – Therubali new line (74 Km) 1,326 11 Malkangiri – Pandurangapuram new line (174 Km) 4,109 12 Badampahar – Kendujhargarh new line (82 Km) 2,106 ..P/2 §-:2:- SN Project Name Cost (₹ in Crore) 13 Junagarh – Nabarangpur new line (116 Km) 3,274 14 Buramara – Chakulia new line (60 Km) 1,639 15 Ajanta Caves Rail Connectivity (174 Km) 7,105 16 Bangriposi – Gorumahisani new line (86 Km) 2,549 17 Chandil – Anara – Damodar 3rd line (121 Km) 2,170 18 Bargarh Road – Nawapara Road new line (138 Km) 2,926 19 Sardega – Bhalumuda new double line (37 Km) 1,360 20 Varanasi – Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Multitracking with rail cum road 2,642 bridge on river ganga (15 Km) 21 Jalgaon – Manmad 4th line (160 Km) 2,773 22 Bhusawal – Khandwa 3rd & 4th line (131 Km) 3,514 23 Sambalpur – Jarapada 3rd & 4th line (127 Km) 3,916 24 Jharsuguda – Sason 3rd & 4th line (35 Km) 1,181 25 Gondia – Ballarshah doubling (240 Km) 4,819 26 Kharsia – Naya Raipur – Parmalkasa 5th & 6th line (278 Km) 8,741 27 Wardha – Balharshah Quadrupling (135 Km) 2,381 28 Ballari – Chikjajur doubling (185 Km) 3,342 29 Koderma – Barkakana doubling (133 Km) 3,063 30 Itarsi – Nagpur 4th line (297 Km) 5,451 31 Dangoaposi – Jaroli 3rd & 4th line (43 Km) 1,752 32 Secunderabad – Wadi 3rd & 4th line (173 Km) 5,012 33 Furkating – New Tinsukia doubling (194 Km) 3,634 34 Bakhtiyarpur – Rajgir – Tilaiya doubling (104 Km) 2,192 35 Gondia – Dongargarh 4th line (84 Km) 2,223 36 Wardha – Bhusawal 3rd & 4th line (314 Km) 9,197 37 Hosapete – Bellary quadrupling (65 Km) 2,372 ..P/3 §-:3:- SN Project Name Cost (₹ in Crore) 38 Kasara – Manmad 3rd & 4th line (131 Km) 10,154 39 Punarakh – Kiul 3rd & 4th line (50 Km) 2,668 40 Gamharia – Chandil 3rd & 4th line (55 Km) 1,168 41 Sainthia- Pakhur 4th Line (81 Km) 1,569 42 Santragachi- Kharagpur 4th line (111 Km) 2,905 43 Nergundi – Barang &Khurda Road – Vizianagaram 3rd line (385 Km) 5,618 44 Son Nagar – Andal Multi tracking (375 Km) 13,606 45 Gorakhpur Cantt – Valmiki Nagar doubling (96 Km) 1,270 46 Jaipur – Sawai Madhopur doubling (131 Km) 1,269 47 Luni – Samdari – Bhildi doubling (272 Km) 3,531 48 Narkatiaganj – Raxaul – Sitamarhi – Darbhanga & Sitamarhi – Muzaffarpur 4,553 doubling (256 Km) 49 Prayagraj (Iradatganj) – Manikpur 3rd line (84 Km) 1,640 50 Tirupati – Pakala – Katpadi doubling (104 Km) 1,332 51 Ratlam – Nagda 3rd and 4th line (41 Km) 1,018 52 Aluabari Road – New Jalpaiguri 3rd & 4th line (57 Km) 1,786 53 Aurangabad (Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar) – Parbhani (177 Km) 2,179 54 Bhagalpur – Dumka – Rampurhat doubling (177 Km) 3,169 55 Itarsi – Bina 4th line (237 Km) 4,329 56 Vadodara – Ratlam 3rd & 4th line (259 Km) 8,885 57 Devbhumi Dwarka (Okha) – Kanalus doubling (141 Km) 1,457 58 Badlapur – Karjat 3rd and 4th line (32 Km) 1,324 59 Delhi – Ambala Cantt 3rd & 4th line (194 Km) 5,983 60 Gondia – Jabalpur doubling (231 Km) 5,236 61 Manmad – Indore new line (360 Km) 18,529 62 Errupelam – Amaravati – Nambur new line (57 Km) 2,245 63 Vadhavan Port and New Palghar station new double line (22 Km) 1,507 64 Deshalpar – Hajipir – Luna and Vayor – Lakhpat new line (145 Km) 2,526 ..P/4 §-:4:- As on 01.04.2025, across Indian Railways, 431 Railway infrastructure projects (154 New Line, 33 Gauge Conversion and 244 Doubling) of total length 35,966 Km, costing approx. 6.75 lakh crore are sanctioned. The summary is as under:- Total Length Length Commissioned No of Total Exp upto Mar’25 Category NL/GC/DL till Mar’25 Projects ( in Cr) (km) (Km) New Lines 154 16,142 3,036 1,45,318 Gauge Conversion 33 4,180 2,997 22,753 Doubling / 244 15,644 6,736 1,22,858 Multitracking Total 431 35,966 12,769 2,90,929 Zone-wise/year-wise details of all Railway projects are made available in public domain on Indian Railway’s website. Some of the Projects recently completed are as follows: S. Length Name of project No. (in Kms) Udhampur- Srinagar- Baramulla new line 272 1 2 Bhairabi - Sairang New Line 51 3 Deoband - Roorkee New Line 27 4 Churu - Ratangarh Doubling 43 5 Tori-Shivpur 3rd Line 44 6 Araria - Galgalia New Line 110 7 Himmatnagar - Khedbrahma Guage Conversion 55 8 Bahraich- Nanpara -Nepalganj Guage Conversion 56 9 Domingarh- Gorakhpur -Kusumi 3rd Line & Gorakhpur -Nakaha Doubling 21 10 Vijapur - Ambaliyasan Guage Conversion 43 11 Pune- Miraj -Londa Doubling 467 ..P/5 §-:5:- SN Project Name Cost (₹ in Crore) 12 Manmad - Jalgaon 3rd Line 160 13 Phephna –Indara- Mau -Shahganj Doubling 150 14 Adraj -Moti -Vijapur Guage Conversion 40 15 Katni -Bina 3rd Line 279 16 Gandhidham- Adipur Quadrupling 21 17 Khatuwas - Narnaul Doubling 24 18 Penukonda- Dharmavaram Doubling 42 Railway Infrastructure projects enable socio-economic development of the region including:  Better connectivity of the region with other parts of the country  Faster movement of goods and services  Improving logistics efficiency and reduction in transportation cost.  Enhance line capacity  Increase in direct and indirect employment opportunities for the people of the region  Reduced operational bottlenecks  Development of tourism industry and increase in industrial activities in the region. In order to boost investment from industry in development of additional terminals for handling rail cargos, 'Gati Shakti Multi-Modal Cargo Terminal (GCT)' policy has been launched. The Gati Shakti Cargo Terminals (GCTs) are being developed by private players, and can be developed on non-Railway land or fully / partially on Railway land. The location of GCTs is being decided on the basis of demand from industry and potential of Cargo traffic. So far, 128 GCTs have been commissioned and in- principle approvals for 288 more locations have been given. Sanction of any railway project depends 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 ..P/6 §-:6:-  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 funds Completion of Railway project/s depends on various factors which include the following:  Land acquisition  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. Various steps taken by the Government for effective and speedy implementation of rail projects include:  Substantial increase in allocation of funds.  Delegation of powers at field level.  Close monitoring of progress of project at various levels.  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. ***** §