Indian Railways: Cabinet Approves Seven Multi-Tracking Projects Worth Over Rs 32,000 Crore

In a big boost to rail infrastructure, Union Cabinet on Wednesday (16 August) approved seven multi-tracking projects totalling 2,339 km, across the Indian Railways network.

The projects amount to around Rs 32,500 crore, with 100 per cent funding from the central government.

All these track-laying projects would be carried out on engineering, procurement and construction model, said Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw after the Cabinet meeting.

The proposed multi-tracking will ease operations and reduce congestion, providing the much required infrastructural development on the busiest sections across Indian Railways.

It will help the Railways to increase the cargo carrying capacity by 120 million ton, said Vaishnaw.

The mega proposal, cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, envisages generation of direct employment for about 7.06 crore man-days during construction.

These are essential routes for transportation of varied basket of commodities such as foodgrains, fertilisers, coal, cement, fly-ash, iron and finished-steel, clinkers, crude oil, lime stone, edible oil etc.

The capacity augmentation works will result in additional freight traffic of magnitude 200 million tonnes per annum.

The Railways being environment-friendly and and energy-efficient mode of transportation, will help both in achieving climate goals and for reducing logistics cost of the country.

The projects are in line with the Prime Minister’s vision of a 'New India' which will make people of the region Atmanirbhar by creating employment and self-employment opportunities.

The projects are a part of the Prime Minister-Gati Shakti National Master Plan for multi-modal connectivity through integrated planning and will provide seamless connectivity for movement of people, goods and services.