Govt clears major railway expansion
In a major boost to the railway infrastructure, the Union Government on Wednesday announced four-laning of seven high-density railway corridors and quadrupling the existing network, equating it to the project Golden Quadrilateral envisioned by Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government for the road infrastructure of the country.
The Indian Railways seven high-density network cleared by the Union Cabinet are identified as Delhi-Howrah, Howrah-Mumbai, Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Guwahati, Delhi-Chennai, Howrah-Chennai and Mumbai-Chennai routes.
Union Minister of Railway, Ashwini Vaishnaw, said several key railway projects are part of the complete overhaul and modernisation of the railways. “In today’s Cabinet meeting, there are some very important railway projects that are part of the railway modernisation work that has been underway over the past 12 years. These are projects related to the complete overhaul and modernisation of the Railways under the leadership of PM Modi. He is undertaking the four-laning and quadrupling of the seven high-density railway corridors, along with many other corridors that are expected to carry significant traffic in the future,” the minister said.
These corridors connect many major cities in the country. The Delhi-Howrah route includes major stations such as Kanpur, Prayagraj, Pt. Deendayal Upadhyay, Patna, and Asansol. Vaishnaw also said that enhanced rail network will add on passengers trains and the idea is to complete overcome the situation of issuing of waitlisted travel tickets and that traveller can travel as per their choice of time and trains.
The Delhi-Mumbai route connects cities such as Mathura, Kota, Ratlam, Vadodara, and Surat. The Delhi-Chennai route connects cities such as Agra, Gwalior, Jhansi, Bhopal, Nagpur, and Vijayawada. The Mumbai-Chennai route includes several important areas, including Pune.
PM Modi led Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) also approved several railway multitracking projects worth around Rs 11,000 crore across five states. These multi-tracking proposals are poised to streamline operations and alleviate congestion on some of the country’s busiest rail routes. The projects are planned under the PM-Gati Shakti National Master Plan with a focus on enhancing multi-modal connectivity and logistics efficiency through integrated planning and stakeholder consultations.
The proposed projects are essential routes for transportation of commodities such as coal, cement, iron and steel, etc. The capacity augmentation works will result in additional freight traffic of magnitude 27 MTPA (Million Tonnes Per Annum).
