Railway projects are surveyed/ sanctioned/executed Zonal Railway wise and not State-wise as the Railway projects may span across State boundaries. Railway projects are sanctioned on the basis of remunerativeness, traffic projections, last mile connectivity, missing links and alternate routes, augmentation of congested/saturated lines, demands raised by State Governments, Central Ministries, Members of Parliament, other public representatives, Railway’s own operational requirement, socio-economic considerations etc. depending upon throw forward of ongoing projects and overall availability of funds.

Railway infrastructure projects falling fully/partly in the State of Tamil Nadu are covered under Southern Railway (SR), South Central Railway (SCR) and South Western Railway (SWR) zones of Indian Railways. Zonal Railway wise details of Railway projects including cost, expenditure and outlay are made available in public domain on Indian Railway’s website.

As on 01.04.2024, 22 Railways projects including those sanctioned in last three years (10 New Line, 03 Gauge Conversion and 09 Doubling) of total length 2,587 Km, costing ₹33,467 Crore, falling fully/partly in the State of Tamil Nadu, are at various stages of planning and implementation, out of which 665 Km length has been commissioned and an expenditure of ₹7,154 Crore has been  incurred  upto  March’ 2024.  The summary is as under:-

Plan Head	No. of projects	Total Length  (in Km)	Length Commissioned (in Km)	Expenditure upto March 2024 (₹in Cr.)
New Line	10	872	24	1223
Gauge Conversion	3	748	604	3267
Doubling /Multitracking	9	967	37	2664
Total	22	2587	665	7154

 

Budget allocation for infrastructure projects and safety works, falling fully/partly in the State of Tamil Nadu is as under:

 

Period	Outlay
2009-14	₹879 crore/year
2024-25	₹6,362 crore  (more than 7 times)

 

Though fund allocation has increased manifold but pace of execution of project is dependent on expeditious land acquisition. Railway acquires the land through State Government and the completion of railway projects is dependent of land acquisition. Execution of important infrastructure projects falling fully/partly in the State of Tamil Nadu are held up due to delay in land acquisition. Status of land acquisition in the State of Tamil Nadu is as under:

Total Land required for Projects in Tamil Nadu	3389 Ha
Land Acquired	866 Ha (26%)
Balance Land to be acquired	2523 Ha (74%)

Government of India is geared up to execute projects, however success depends upon the support of Government of Tamil Nadu.  For instance, details of some major projects which are delayed due to land acquisition are as under:-

SN	Name of the project	Total  land required (in Ha)	Land acquired (in Ha)	Balance Land to be acquired (in Ha)
1.	Tindivanam –Tiruvannamalai new line (71 Km)	273	33	240
2.	Attiputtu – Puttur New Line (88 Km)	189	0	189
3.	Morappur – Dharmapuri (36 Km)	93	0	93
4.	Mannargudi – Pattukkottai (41 Km)	152	0	152
5.	Thanjavur – Pattukottai (52 Km)	196	0	196

 

The completion of any Railway project depends on various factors like quick land acquisition by State Government, forest clearance by officials of forest department, deposition of cost share by State Government in cost sharing projects, priority of projects, shifting of infringing utilities, statutory clearances from various authorities, geological and topographical conditions of area, law and order situation in the area of project(s) site, number of working months in a year for particular project site due to climate conditions etc.

This information was given by Union Minister of railways, information & broadcasting and electronics & information technology Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.

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DT/SK

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