New Railway Lines in Bundelkhand
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
LOK SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO: 604
ANSWERED ON: 20.11.2019
New Railway Lines in Bundelkhand
Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma
Pushpendra Singh Chandel
Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:-
(a) the total length of new railway lines in kilometre laid down under rail network in the country during the last three years along with the project being implemented by the Government to bring such areas under rail network which are still deprived of such facility and the details thereof;
(b) whether the Government proposes to lay down any new railway line in Bundelkhand area;
(c) if so, the details thereof; and
(d) whether the Government has also considered the plan of connecting the tourist and religious centres of Bundelkhand through railway routes and if so, the details thereof?
ANSWER MINISTER OF RAILWAYS AND COMMERCE & INDUSTRY (SHRI PIYUSH GOYAL)
(a): Total New Railway lines laid in the Country in the last three years are as under:-
2016-17 – 953 Km
2017-18 – 409 Km
2018-19 – 480 Km.
Most of the new line projects have been taken up primarily on socio-economic considerations in backward and remote areas for the speedy development of economically backward areas and presently 188 New Line Projects of length 21,295 km costing Rs.3.87 lakh crore are in different stage of planning/sanction/execution, out of which, 2,622 Km length has been commissioned and an expenditure of Rs.85,536 crores has been incurred till March, 2019.
Thorough review of throughput enhancement projects has been carried out and with focussed approach, the projects have been prioritized into Super Critical Projects (58 nos), Critical Projects (68 nos.) and other throughput enhancement projects (130 nos.).
Presently, the balance length of Super Critical Projects is 2347 Km, 5676 Km of Critical Projects and 9703 Km for other Doubling Projects. The throw-forward for these projects is of the order of Rs.1.84 lakh crores and all out sincere and focussed approach is being adopted by Railway for quick execution and early return to Railways.
(b) to (d): For further development of the area around Bundelkhand, one New Line Project namely Lalitpur-Khajuraho-Satna & Rewa-Singrauli of length 541 km is under execution. Up to March, 2019, 230 km has been commissioned and balance work has been taken up. This line will serve the world famous heritage tourist destination named Khajuraho.