Railway Projects in North East States

Presently, 20 projects costing ₹73,214 crore for 1,786 km length falling fully / partly in Assam and North Eastern Region are under different stage of planning/ approval/ execution – 14 New Line projects covering a length of 1,302 km at a cost of ₹57,826 crore and 6 Doubling projects covering a length of 483 km at a cost of ₹15,388 crore.

Projects in North Eastern Region were previously suffering mainly on account of shortage of funds but during 2014-19, execution of projects have been speeded up and more fund allocations have been made for the projects. Following projects have been completed and commissioned from 2015 onwards in North Eastern Region:

(1) Harmuti-Naharlagun new line (21.75 km) project commissioned in 2015.

 

(2) Rangiya-Murkongselek Gauge Conversion (505 km) project commissioned in 2015.

 

(3) Lumding-Silchar Gauge Conversion (421 km) project commissioned in 2015.

 

(4) Kumarghat-Agartala new line (109 km) project commissioned in 2016.

 

(5) Bhairabi-Sairang Gauge Conversion (51.38 km) project commissioned in 2016.

 

(6) Bogibeel Bridge with linking lines new line (73 km) project commissioned in 2018.

 

(7) Agartala-Sabroom new line (112 km) project commissioned in 2019.

 

(8) Hojai-Lumding doubling (44.92 km) project commissioned in 2019.

 

The timely 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 considerations, encountering unforeseen conditions like earthquake, flooding, excessive rains, strikes of labour, orders of Hon’ble Courts, situation and conditions of working agencies/contractors etc. All these factors vary project to project and site to site which affect the completion time and cost of the project, which is finally worked out at the completion stage. As such, confirmed completion time for remaining projects cannot be fixed at this stage, nevertheless, every effort is being made to commission the projects quickly.

This information was given by the Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry, Shri Piyush Goyal in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.