The Indian Railways plans to commission 6.85 km of tracks a day in the current fiscal, up from 5.4 km a day last fiscal. Overall, it will commission 2,500 km of tracks this year, against 1,980 km last year.

According to the Railways, this will help in creating demand for steel, cement and copper, among others.

“Our consumption this year is expected to be 13 lakh tonnes of steel, 30 lakh tonnes of cement, 40,000 km of signalling cable and 7,000 tonnes of copper wire. This will be through a mix of direct and indirect demand (through contractors). This is an assured demand,” said VK Gupta, Member-Mechanical, Indian Railways.

Between 2015-16 and 2019-20, the Railways will build 17,000 km of tracks, of which 2,000 km will be new lines, 4,000 km will be gauge conversion and 11,000 km will be doubling.

Online process Gupta said the Railways had put in place an online process that makes project implementation much faster.

“Of the 77 supersaturated corridors, identified by the Executive Director’s committee, covering 9,000 km length, we have already received 69 detailed project reports. Of these, 28 have been sent to the NITI Aayog, of which 15 have already received the Aayog’s in-principle nod,” Gupta said.

On funding, Gupta said: “The Railways expects to get the first tranche of ₹2,000 crore from LIC over the next few days. The Railways had signed a memorandum of understanding with LIC for accessing long-term funds.”

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