Indian Railways is looking to award 58 critical and 68 important projects worth nearly Rs 11,600 crore in the next few years in order to improve the quality standards, safety systems and create additional capacity for passenger and freight trains on saturated and busy routes, the government said in a press release.
The Ministry of Railways in a press release on June 29 said that despite challenges brought in by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Indian Railways is looking to complete work on its identified 58 supercritical projects of a total length of 3,750 km costing Rs 39,663 Crore.
The projects are for multi-tracking of busy routes and out of these 58 critical projects, 27 projects will be completed by December 2021 while 2 projects will be handed over by March 2022.Another 68 important projects with a total length of 6,913 km costing Rs 75,736 crore have been commissioned, the government said in a press release.
“Based on traffic density, type of commodity moved, the importance of route from strategic considerations etc. the projects requiring urgent expansion including those which are already progressing well (expenditure already more than 60%) have been categorized as critical projects (58 nos) and the projects requiring completion in next stage have been defined as important projects (68 nos). All are civil projects (Includes all related electrification and signalling works also),” the government said in a press release.
The Railways also said that by focussed funding and continuous monitoring, these projects are targeted for early completion to reap the benefits of investment.
“On completion, these projects will improve mobility, safety and create additional capacity for running more passenger and freight trains on these saturated and busy routes. Higher priority has been given in allocation of budget for these identified projects for early completion,” the government said in a press release.