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The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved creation of several railway lines – which will be doubled and electrified – and one new rail line project. These projects will be completed by 2021-22 to 2022-23, apart from creating capacity, jobs and linking non-rail linked regions. Electrification will lead to faster trains, reduce carbon emissions and promote sustainable environment. Further, it will reduce fuel import dependence, and result in energy costs savings for Railways and forex savings for the country, said an official release.
For example, the 116.95 km long Bhatni-Aurnihar line doubling with electrification at a completion cost of Rs 1300.9 crore and is likely to be completed by 2021-22. The project will cover the districts of Deoria, Ballia, Mau and Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh.
Aurnihar is junction station of Varanasi division having connectivity towards four sides – Aurnihar-Chhapra, Aurnihar-Bhatni, Aurnihar-Jaunpur and Aurnihar-Varanasi. Present line capacity utilisation of the section is 118 per cent leading to congestion and slower train movement.
Allahabad-Mughalsarai route of North Central Railway is over saturated and there is heavy congestion at Mughalsarai. Doubling of this route will allow shifting of traffic from Mughalsarai-Allahabad route to this route thereby decongesting it. This will benefit passengers travelling to eastern India especially Bihar, West Bengal and North East. The project will generate direct employment during construction of about 28.07 lakh mandays.
Jhansi-Manikpur and Bhimsen-Khairar lines
Also approved was a project to have 425 km long Jhansi-Manikpur and Bhimsen-Khairar lines doubling and electrification projects at a completion cost of Rs 4,955.72 crore. These are likely to be completed by 2022-23. The projects will cover the districts of Jhansi, Mahoba, Banda, Chitrakut Dham in Uttar Pradesh and Chhatarpur in Madhya Pradesh. The present track capacity utilisation of Jhansi-Khairar, Khairar-Manikpur and Khairar-Bhimsen isover 100 per cent, which leads to congestion and slow movement of trains.
This route will also act as a feeder route of dedicated freight corridor – helping swift movement of goods especially agricultural produce to consumer areas, and to ports for export. The cement cluster in Satna and infrastructure sector will be another major beneficiary from this development through smoother movement of cement. It will also improve connectivity to Khajuraho which is an international tourist destination. These projects will generate direct employment during construction of about 102 lakh mandays.
Jeypore-Malkangiri
Another line is that received Cabinet nod is 130 km long Jeypore-Malkangiri New Line project at a completion cost of Rs. 2676.11 crore and is likely to be completed by 2021-22. The project will cover Koraput and Malkangiri districts in Odisha. They are among the identified left wing extremism (LWE) affected districts in the country. The proposed new line will connect Malkangiri, Boipariguda, Tanginiguda, Mathili, Pondripani Road and other major towns to Jeypore station on the existing Kottavalasa-Kirandul line. Further, connectivity to important towns viz. Koraput, Jeypore, Jagdalpur, Dantewara will improve. It will also result in short lead to many other places of Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. At present Malkangiri has no connectivity with Railways. This project will generate direct employment during construction of about 31.2 lakh mandays.
Muzaffar-Sagauli
The100.6 km long Muzaffarpur-Sagauli and 109.7 Km Sagauli-Valmiki Nagar lines doubling projects with electrification at completion costs of Rs 1347.61 crore and Rs 1381.49 crore respectively was approved. These projects will cover the districts of Muzaffarpur, East Champaran (Motihari) and West Champaran (Bettiah) in Bihar.
Congestion and stoppages on Muzaffarpur to Valmiki Nagar route will be eased – with the line capacity utilization is upto 213 per cent. Champaran is on the border with Nepal, thus doubling of this line will lead to better connectivity with neighbouring countries as well. In addition, Muzaffarpur-Sagauli and Sagauli-Valmiki Nagar projects will generate direct employment during construction for 24.14 lakh mandays and 26.33 lakh mandays respectively, added the release.
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