Railway projects are surveyed/sanctioned/executed Zonal Railway wise and not State-wise as the Railways’ projects may span across State boundaries. Sanctioning of Railway projects is a continuous and dynamic process of Indian Railway. Railway infrastructure projects are taken up on the basis of remunerativeness, traffic projections, last mile connectivity, missing links and alternate routes, augmentation of congested/saturated lines socio-economic considerations etc. depending upon liabilities of ongoing projects, overall availability of funds and competing demands.

Railway Infrastructure Projects falling fully/partly in the State of West Bengal are covered under Eastern Railway (ER), South Eastern Railway (SER) and Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) Zones of Indian Railways. Zonal Railway wise details of Railway projects including cost, expenditure and outlay are made available in public domain.

As on 01.04.2024, 43 projects (13 New Lines, 04 Gauge Conversions and 26 Doubling), of total length of 4479 Km, costing Rs. 60,168 crore falling fully/partly in the State of West Bengal including those which are in planning/approval/construction stage, out of which, 1655 km length has been commissioned and an expenditure of Rs. 20,434 crore has been incurred upto March, 2024. The summary is as under:-

Category	No. of projects	Total Length  (in Km)	Length Commissioned till March, 2024  (in Km)	Total Exp. upto March, 2024 (Rs. in Cr.)
New Lines	13	1087	322	9774
Gauge Conversion	4	1201	854	3663
Doubling/Multi-tracking	26	2192	479	6997
Total	43	4479	1655	20434

 

The details of outlay for infrastructure projects falling fully/partly in the State of West Bengal is as under:-

Period	Outlay
2009-14	Rs. 4,380 Cr./year
2024-25	Rs. 13,941 Cr. (More than 3 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 a railway projects is dependent of land acquisition. Execution of important infrastructure projects falling fully/partly in the State of West Bengal are held up due to delay in land acquisition. Status of land acquisition in the State of West Bengal is as under:

Total Land required for Projects in West Bengal	3040 Ha
Land Acquired	640   Ha (21%)
Balance Land to be acquired	2400 Ha (79%)

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

SNo.	Name of the project	Total  land required (in Ha)	Land acquired (in Ha)	Balance Land to be acquired (in Ha)
1	Nabadwipghat-Nabadwipdham New Line (10 Km)	106.86	0.17	106.69
2	Chandaneshwar-Jaleswar new line (41 Km)	158	0	158
3	Naihati-Ranaghat-3rd line (36 Km)	87.83	0.09	87.74
4	Balurghat-Hilli new line (30 km)	156.38	67.38	88.00
5	Byepass at Sainthia (5 Km) & Sitarampur (7 Km)	22.28	2.22	20.06

 

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 climatic conditions etc.

Various steps taken by the Government for speedy approval and implementation of Railway projects include (i) setting up of Gati Shakti units (ii) prioritiAsation of projects (iii) substantial increase in allocation of funds on priority projects (iv) delegation of powers at field level (v) close  monitoring  of  progress  of project at various levels, and (vi) regular follow up with State Governments and concerned authorities for expeditious land acquisition, forestry and Wildlife clearances and for resolving other issues pertaining to projects. This has led to substantial increase in rate of commissioning since 2014.

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.

*****

DT/SK

(Release ID: 2086649) Visitor Counter : 486