Ongoing Railway Projects in Punjab
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
LOK SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO: 3797
ANSWERED ON: 11.12.2019
Ongoing Railway Projects in Punjab
Jasbir Singh Gill
Amar Singh
Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:-
(a) The details of ongoing projects in Punjab and the status of each railway project as on date;
(b) Whether any project is lagging behind the schedule and if so, the details thereof and reasons therefor;
(c) The details of the railway stations that are to be updated and renovated and the total amount being spent on each;
(d) The status of new railway lines to be constructed between Beas to Qadian and Patti to Ferozepur;
(e) Whether Amritsar station is being renovated and if so, the total amount to be spent and the time by which project is likely to be completed; and
(f) The current steps taken to tackle the problem of de-bottlenecking of the existing freight corridors, especially in North India?
ANSWER – MINISTER OF RAILWAYS AND COMMERCE & INDUSTRY (SHRI PIYUSH GOYAL)
(a) to (f) A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (f) OF UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3797 BY SHRI JASBIR SINGH GILL AND DR. AMAR SINGH TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 11.12.2019 REGARDING ONGOING RAILWAY PROJECTS IN PUNJAB
(a) and (b) Presently, 14 railway projects (6 New Lines and 8 Doubling) covering a length of 871 Km, costing 16,100 crore, falling fully/partly in the State of Punjab are in different stages of planning/approval/execution, out of which, 316 km length has been commissioned and an expenditure of 2184 crore has been incurred up to March, 2019. This includes ;
6 New Line Projects covering a length of 356 Km costing 12,414 crore, out of which, 61 Km length has been commissioned and an expenditure of 1,004 crore has been incurred upto March 2019.
8 Doubling Projects covering a length of 515 Km costing 3,686 crore, out of which, 255 Km length has been commissioned and an expenditure of 1,181 crore has been incurred up to March 2019.
Details of projects including budget are available in public domain on Indian Railways website i.e. www.indianrailways.gov.in > Ministry of Railways > Railway Board > About Indian Railways > Railway Board Directorates > Finance (Budget).
Average Annual Budget allocation for infrastructure projects and safety works, falling fully/partly in the State of Punjab, during 2014-19 has been enhanced to 1,004 crore per year from 225 crore per year during 2009-14 which is 446% of average annual allocation of previous five years i.e during 2009-14 ( 225 crore).
Total allocation of Budget for infrastructure projects and safety works, falling fully/ partly in State of Punjab, in 2019-20 is 1,095 crore, which is 487 % of the average annual Budget during 2009-14.
The timely completion of any Railway project depends on various factors like quick land acquisition by State Government, forest clearance by officials of forest department, tree cutting permission, shifting of infringing utilities (both underground and over ground), statutory clearances from various authorities, geological and topographical conditions of area, law and order situation in the area of project site, number of working months in a year for particular project site due to climatic conditions, encountering unforeseen conditions like earthquake, flooding, excessive rains, strikes of labour, orders of Hon’ble Courts, situation and conditions of working agencies/contractors etc. All these factors vary from project to project and site to site and affect the completion time and cost of the project, which is finally worked out at the completion stage.
(c) and (e) Ministry of Railways has planned for redevelopment of railway stations through Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation Limited (IRSDC), Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) and other Central Government agencies. Amritsar railway station has been entrusted to IRSDC for redevelopment. The cost of station redevelopment project is to be met by leveraging commercial development of land and air space in and around the stations.
Station redevelopment project is complex in nature and requires detailed techno-financial feasibility studies and statutory clearances from local authorities. Therefore, no time-frame for completion of the project can be indicated at this stage.
(d) Qadian-Beas (39.68 Km) new line project was included in budget 2011-12, subject to requisite approvals. Latest cost of the project is 890.67 crore. Final Location Survey (FLS) of the project from Qadian side was started in May, 2012, but it got delayed due to protest from local public and law and order problems in the area. Finally, Final Location Survey has been completed in the year 2017 under police protection and ensuring the presence of Duty Magistrate. The land acquisition papers for acquisition of 166.68 hectares land has been submitted to concerned Special Land Acquisition Officers for the project. For speedy land acquisition, 13 lakh has also been paid by Railway to State Revenue Department for hiring of retired revenue staff.
Firozepur-Patti (Mallanwala Khas-Gharayala 25.72 km) new line project was included in Budget 2013-14. Government of Punjab has to provide land free of cost for the project. Cost of the project is 299.74 crore. Final Location Survey for this project has been completed. Land acquisition papers for 70.01 Ha land has been submitted to Deputy Commissioner Firozepur and for 95.68 Ha land submitted to Deputy Commissioner, Taran Taran. Execution of work will be taken up after complete encumbrance free land is handed over to Railway.
(f) Ministry of Railways has taken up construction of two Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC) viz. Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) from Ludhiana to Sonnagar (1318 km) and Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) from Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT) to Dadri (1504 km). Works on the projects have been taken up.
DFC will offer higher transport output and reduced transit time in the country. Commissioning of DFC would also result in segregation of freight and passenger services to large extent and decongestion of existing routes, thus leading to improvement of efficiency of the passenger services on the existing Indian Railway network.