To strengthen rail infrastructure and make its network future ready, Indian Railways has identified 56 projects all across the country in various zones to be completed by March next year. Out of these, 13 will be completed by March this year.
In a statement issued on Wednesday (3 January) , the Ministry of Railways said that Indian Railways has the highest ever total plan capital expenditure of Rs 2,15,058 crore this year, out of which Rs 1,07,100 crore has been allocated in the General Budget.
“This time onwards, in a paradigm shift, Railways has focused on the completion of existing projects quickly as well besides simultaneously working on the new projects announced,” it said.
“As far as new big projects are concerned, Rs 40,932 crore have been allocated for new lines, Rs 26,116 crore for doubling, Rs 5,263 crore for traffic facilities and Rs 7,122 crore for ROBs/RUBs. Traffic facilities have seen a whopping 156 per cent jump in allocation while new lines have got 52 per cent increase in allocation as compared to last year,” the statement said.
It also said that other than these major projects, for the convenience of public, the Railways is set to complete more than 1,200 Road Over Bridges (ROB), Road Under Bridges (RUB), and subways this year. These ROBs/RUBs are of vital importance for the public in cities and other areas where railway lines are passing through.
“Over and above these existing projects, an additional Rs 7,122 crore have been allocated for construction of new ROB/RUBs this year. It may be noted that the total Number of existing ROB/RUBs in the country is 14,000,” it said.
The Railway Ministry said that the thrust of Annual Plan 2021-22 is on infrastructure development, throughput enhancement, development of terminal facilities, augmentation of speed of trains, signalling systems, improvement of passengers/users’ amenities, safety works of ROBs/RUBs.
(With inputs from IANS)