Parliament Question: Status of Railway Projects in Bhagalpur

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 538 TO BE ANSWERED ON 23.07.2025 STATUS OF RAILWAY PROJECTS IN BHAGALPUR †538. SHRI AJAY KUMAR MANDAL: Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state: (a) the details of the major railway projects (such as station redevelopment, new line, track doubling, bridge, Vande Bharat train facility) currently being implemented or proposed in Bhagalpur Lok Sabha constituency at present; (b) the details of financial approval, amount sanctioned, current status (such as DPR prepared, land acquired, under construction or completed) and likely timeline of each project; (c) the details of the updated status of Navgachhiya, Shivnarayanpur, Sabour, Pirpainti and Kahalgaon station under Amrit Bharat Yojana along with the amount spent on it; (d) whether a new terminal station is proposed to be constructed at Bhagalpur and if so, the details along with the cost, location (e.g. Jagdishpur) and present status of construction thereof; and (e) whether any special committee, report or review system has been framed at Railway Board/DRM level for monitoring supervision of the projects and if so, the details thereof? ANSWER MINISTER OF RAILWAYS, INFORMATION & BROADCASTING AND ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW) (a) to (e): Ministry of Railways has launched Amrit Bharat Station Scheme for redevelopment of stations. So far, 1337 stations have been identified for development under Amrit Bharat Station Scheme. ...2/--2- Presently Phase-I work of 105 stations have been completed and commissioned and works have been taken up at 1110 stations. Further, 98 stations located in state of Bihar including Bhagalpur, Naugachia, Shivanarayanpur, Sabaur, Pirpainti and Kahalgaon railway stations have been identified for development under Amrit Bharat Station Scheme. The progress at some of these stations is as given below: At Pirpainti, phase-I work i.e. improvement to station building elevation, portico, concourse area, circulating area, improvement of waiting hall, construction of new pay & use toilet, signages and divyangjan facilities have been completed. The work of construction of foot over bridge has been taken up. At Naugachia, the works for foundation of platform shelter, earthwork in circulating area have been completed and the works of new station building, construction of platform shelter and new foot over bridge have been taken up. At Shivanarayanpur, the works of station elevation, concourse area, improvement to waiting hall, provision of coach and train indication boards, Visual display boards, signages have been completed and works of circulating area, Pay & Use Toilet, construction of new foot over bridge have been taken up. At Sabaur, the works of OFC building, improvement of waiting halls have been completed and the works of station building elevation including portico, circulating area, concourse area, improvement to 2nd class waiting hall, provision of coach and train indication board, Visual display boards, signages, construction of new foot over bridge have been taken up. …3/--3- At Kahalgaon, the works of improvement to waiting hall, construction of new pay & use toilet, divyangjan facilities and provision of signages have been completed and the works of improvement to station building elevation including portico, circulating area, concourse area, installation of Visual display boards and construction of new foot over bridge have been taken up. Master planning for development of Bhagalpur railway station under Amrit Bharat Station Scheme has been taken up. This is an iterative process requiring optimization and the time frame for such optimization cannot be indicated at this stage. The Amrit Bharat Station scheme envisages development of stations on a continuous basis with a long-term approach. It involves preparation of master plans and their implementation in phases to improve the amenities at the stations like improvement of station access, circulating areas, waiting halls, toilets, lift/escalators as necessary, platform surfacing and cover over platform, cleanliness, free Wi-Fi, kiosks for local products through schemes like ‘One Station One Product’, better passenger information systems, executive lounges, nominated spaces for business meetings, landscaping, etc. keeping in view the necessity at each station. The scheme also envisages improvement of building, integrating the station with both sides of the city, multimodal integration, amenities for Divyangjans, 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. Development/upgradation 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. The priority for development/upgradation of stations is accorded to higher category of station over lower category of station while sanctioning and executing the works. ..4/--4- Development / upgradation of stations including under Amrit Bharat Station Scheme is generally funded under Plan Head-53 ‘Customer Amenities’. The details of allocation under Plan Head-53 are maintained Zonal Railway-wise and not work-wise or station-wise or State-wise. Bhagalpur Parliamentary Constituency falls under the jurisdiction of East Central Railway and Eastern Railways for which a total allocation of ₹942 crores (Budget Estimate) has been made for the financial year 2025-26 under Plan Head-53. Further, development/redevelopment/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 clearance etc. The progress also gets affected due to brown field related challenges such as shifting of utilities, (involving water/sewage lines, optical fiber cables, gas pipe lines, power/signal cables etc.,) infringements, operation of trains without hindering passenger movement, speed restrictions due to works carried out in close proximity of high voltage power lines etc. and these factors affect the completion time. Therefore, no time frame can be indicated at this stage. Railway infrastructural Projects in the State of Bihar are covered by East Central Railway (ECR), Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR), Eastern Railway (ER), North Eastern Railway (NER) Zone of Indian Railways. Zonal Railway wise details of Railway projects are made available in public domain on Indian Railway’s website. Sanctioning and execution of works of Road Over Bridges/ Road Under Bridges (ROBs/RUBs) in lieu of LCs is a continuous and ongoing process on Indian Railways. Such works are prioritized and taken up on the basis of its impact on safety and mobility in train operations and impact on road users. ..5/--5- No. of ROBs/RUBs constructed on Indian Railways during the period 2004-14 vis-a-vis 2014-26 (June’25) is as under: Period ROBs/RUBs constructed 2004-14 4148 2014-26 (upto June’25) 13426 (including 558 Nos. in the state of Bihar) As on dt. 01.04.2025, 4402 Nos. ROBs/ RUBs are sanctioned at the cost of Rs. 1,00,860 crore on Indian Railways including 218 Nos. Road Over Bridge (ROB)/Road Under Bridge (RUB) at the cost of Rs. 6014 crore in the State of Bihar, which are at various stages of planning and execution. Out of these, 05 Nos. ROBs/RUBs are sanctioned in Bhagalpur Constituency. Details are as under:- Sanctioned RUBs/ROBs S.N. Location ROB/ Cost Remarks RUB/ (in FOB Rs. Cr.) 1 LC No. 1/A on ROB 90 The work of ROB has been Bhagalpur- sanctioned. The works of Jamalpur preparation of GAD and section Detailed Estimate have been 2 LC No. 6 on ROB 82 taken up. Bhagalpur- Pirpainti section 3 LC No. 9 on ROB 81 Bhagalpur- Jamalpur section 4 LC No. 11/spl ROB 42 The work of ROB has been on Katihar- sanctioned. The work of Barauni Railway portion has been section completed and approach portion has been taken up 5 LC No. 5 on LHS 6 The work of ROB has been Sahibganj- sanctioned. GAD has been Bhaglapur approved. The work has been section taken up. ..6/--6- Completion and commissioning of ROB/RUB works depend on various factors like cooperation of State Governments in giving consent for closure of LCs, fixing of approach alignment, approval of General Arrangement Drawing (GAD), land acquisition, removal of encroachments, shifting of infringing utilities, statutory clearances from various authorities, law and order situation in the area of project/work sites, duration of working season in a year for the particular project/area due to climatic conditions etc. All these factors affect the completion time of the projects / works. As on 01.04.2025, 52 projects (31 New Lines, 01 Gauge Conversions and 20 Doubling), of a total length of 4,663 km, costing Rs.86,107 crore, falling fully/partly in Bihar, are sanctioned, out of which 1,014 km length has been commissioned and an expenditure of Rs. 29,353 crore has been incurred upto March’ 2025 including those falling fully/partly in Bhagalpur. At present in the vicinity of Bhagalpur some railway projects namely (i) Vikramshila-Katareah New Line (26 Km) with Bridge over River Ganga, (ii) Sultanganj-Katuria New Line (77 Km) and (iii) Pirpainti- Jasidih New Line (97 Km) have been taken up to further improve Rail connectivity in the area. At present 104 train service including, 02 Vande Bharat services are catering to the needs of passengers of Bhagalpur. These services include the service of 22309/22310 Howrah-Bhagalpur Vande Bharat Express which has been introduced w.e.f. 15.09.2024. Besides, introduction of train services, including Vande Bharat Express, is an ongoing process on Indian Railways subject to traffic justification, operational feasibility, resource availability etc. ..7/--7- The DPR of ‘New Bhagalpur station with Coaching Facility’ has been prepared by Eastern Railway with project cost as Rs. 310.45 crore. Railway projects are surveyed/sanctioned/executed Zonal Railway wise and not State-wise as the Railways’ projects may span across State boundaries. 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 throw forward of ongoing projects and overall availability of funds. Completion of any Railway project/s depends on various factors like quick land acquisition by State Government, forestry clearance by officials of forest department, deposition of State share by the State Government in cost sharing projects, 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 due to climatic conditions, etc and all these factors affect the completion time of the project/s. With above constraints, every effort is being made to complete these projects at the earliest. Monitoring of projects is done at various levels including through dedicated portal of Indian Railways named Indian Railway Project Sanction and Management (IRPSM). The issues faced by the executing units are accordingly addressed. *****